In an effort to force Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic back to the negotiating table in the ongoing war between the Serb and the Albanians, NATO began a strategic bombing campaign in Kosovo. Serbian demonstrators in Toronto conducted nightly protests against the bombing, outside the United States Consulate on University Ave., from March 25th until the campaign halted on June 17th, 1999.

For the most part, the two and one-half months of protests were peaceful, however, that first evening of Thursday March 25th, things got ugly. By 9 p.m. a large crowd had gathered. Officers from the Public Order Unit, the Mounted Unit, and 52 Division formed a protective cordon between the 1200 demonstrators and the U.S. Embassy. Despite pleas for a peaceful protest from our officers and Serbian spokespeople, violence erupted. Within a few minutes, the front of the Embassy was in flames as a result of thrown Molotov cocktails. A barrage of paint bombs, eggs and rocks flew at, and over the heads of our officers, breaking windows and scarring the face of the building. A small fire inside the Embassy, caused by a firebomb thrown through a window, was quickly extinguished. Two of our officers suffered serious head and leg injuries, and were taken to hospital for treatment. It took over an hour to disperse the agitated crowd.

Numerous arrests were effected in the immediate aftermath of the violence and over the following days as the perpetrators were identified through photographic evidence.

Though violence never again erupted to this degree, a large contingent of our PSU and Mounted officers remained on scene nightly to ensure the safety of all, until the last demonstration June 17th, 1999.

Over the course of these protests, a total of 24,000 regular, and 28,000 overtime hours were worked by our personnel, for an all-up cost of $2.1 million.

This collage of media photos succinctly captures the events of that first evening, March 25th, 1999.