Bahtiri: Bridge must be opened over the Iber River

Northern Mitrovica municipality officials, inhabited by Serb majority, say they are expected to establish borders between the two municipalities, while South Mitrovica municipality officials consider the issue done.

The context between the two municipalities is the village of Suhodol, in which several dozen Serbian families live. According to the cadastra, the village belongs to southern Mitrovica, with which the northern Mitrovica municipality is not reconciled.

North Mitrovica Mayor Goran Rakiq stresses that security and peace stand in first place, because that is precisely on this bridge, according to he says, 960 interethnic incidents.

“also, according to the Brussels Agreement, at point 5, reportedly without the appointment of borders of northern and southern Mitrovica, the bridge will not open for circulation. Along with security, peace and stability, we must respect the Brussels Agreement, which is clear. The bridge will be opened for circulation at the moment that both mayors agree and sign the agreement to establish the borders of the two municipalities”, Rakic stressed.

On the other hand, South Mitrovica Mayor Agim Bahtiri says the incidents are declining and that the situation has normalised.

As he says, only 7 incidents have been recorded since his arrival in southern Mitrovica in 2013.

Regarding the demarcation of the borders of the northern and southern Mitrovica municipality, Bahtiri says this issue is defined with the Ahtisaari Document, from which Kosovo's laws have emerged. According to him, changing the plan would require discussion and parliamentary support, which would open other issues of determining the borders of municipalities throughout Kosovo.

According to Bahtiri, the Mmorandumi for border demarcation has been done with the support of the international community, on the foundations of the Ahtisaari Document, and has tied the call to the mayor of the Northern Mitrovica municipality to sign it.

Bahtiri says the bridge should open and no one has the right to block it.

Whether we wanted to, or didn't, the bridge would be clear. It would have been better to do so peacefully and to do so in a normal way. On the contrary, there are the laws of the Republic of Kosovo, the Kosovo Police, which no one can prevent, because it is the right of all citizens. I know very well that citizens of the northern part, who are Serbs, seek the opening of the bridge, and not only Albanians. There can be no rigid, cut-off, malicious policy to disrupt the unity of citizens and who is to separate citizens will have no place here”, Bahtiri said.

Even Kosovo Technical Team chief in dialogue with Serbia Avni Arifi has said that the issue of determining the borders of northern and southern Mitrovica municipalities has ended with the Ahtisaari Document. According to him, all for the time being, it's only about Prolonging the opening of the bridge over Iber by the mayor of the Northern Mitrovica municipality.

Currently, the main bridge over the Iber River is open only to pedestrians.

Since 1999, the main bridge over the Iber River had been blocked on its northern side, thus becoming a symbol of the split rather than the unification of the town of Mitrovica.

In 2014, after removing the barricade on this bridge, local northern municipality authorities had built the so-called “Peace Parque” on the bridge. The whole issue had become the subject of talks on the Brussels dialogue, and in 2015 the agreement was reached to remove “Peace Parkut” and to renew the bridge, responsible for its functioning for circulation. Work was scheduled to end in June 2016, and the European Union had financed the renovation project by about 1. 2m euros.

Several times from the Office in Kosovo and the European Union, it has been said that works have not developed with the desired dynamic. In some cases the works have been suspended by the mayor of northern Mitrovica, Goran Rakiq, due to incidents in northern Mitrovica. Also, the municipality officials had built a wall near the bridge in the northern part, which had left in the wake of reactions by Kosovo authorities and the international community.