Nato peacekeepers in Kosovo are investigating whether the past three days of violence in the province were organised by militants from the ethnic Albanian community.
The commander of Nato forces in southern Europe, Admiral Gregory Johnson, has said he believes that the trouble has been orchestrated.
During the height of the protests in the Kosovan capital Pristina, thousands of demonstrators marched down the main street chanting the name of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
The KLA was disbanded almost five years ago, but while most of its members joined mainstream politics, some clung to their dream of creating an independent Kosovo by force.
anger
Until recently their ideas had little support, but this week tens of thousands of Albanians took part in attacks on Serbian villages and enclaves.
These began as spontaneous outbursts of anger from a population which has become disillusioned by their low standard of living and frustrated by the uncertainty about the province's future status.
However, the veteran Kosovan political analyst, Veton Surroi, told the BBC he detected a sinister purpose behind them.
"I think that now we have come to the second phase, when this kind of violence is clearly conducted and organised," he said.
"It's organised with the intention, on the one hand, of frightening the Serb population - to expel it from parts of central Kosovo by destroying Serb religious buildings.
"And on the other hand [it has the effect] of directing the accumulated anger of the population against Unmik [United Nations Misson in Kosovo] and K-For [the Nato-led Kosovo Protection Force], things that until now were not considered possible."
Dangerous consequences
Nato and the UN also suspect there is a wider purpose to the violence.
The attacks have been concentrated on Serb enclaves in central Kosovo.
By forcing the Serbian population to move north, the attackers are making it easier to partition Kosovo in the future, something which - until now - has been opposed by all mainstream politicians.
While that might seem an easy solution in the short term, it would have profound and potentially dangerous consequences for all of Kosovo's neighbours.
It would also represent the undoing of everything the international community has tried to do in the past five years.