KFOR: Any decision about the bridge over Iber being made within dialogue

“KFOR continues to implement the mandate appointed by the United Nations to ensure a safe environment for all Kosovo residents at any time, impartially, including the presence on the Mitrovica bridge and patrols in the area around”, it has said. KFOR in an answer to Radio Free Europe.

In Friday morning, the ruling party's assistants -- Vetevendosje Movement in the Northern Mitrovica Municipal Assembly -- have demanded that a decision taken last year be implemented to open the Ibri Bridge.

However, the mayor of the municipal Assembly, Nexhad Uglanin, has said that the implementation of the bridge's decision on issues belongs to local authorities.

“We support each movement, the Sʹna bridge should be symbolic, but we need it for co-existence among communities”, he said during the meeting.

The deputy chairman of this municipal Assembly, Skender Sadiku, has said on Friday that the bridge is not under the jurisdiction of the municipal Assembly, nor is it preserved, but by KFOR Carabiniers.

According to him, the opening of the bridge is also in the jurisdiction of the South Mitrovica municipality, and of KFOR, and that there are Brussels agreements for that.

The point in disaster is that this bridge does not depend only on us, but this issue is also on security institutions. We, like the Parliament, did our part. We need to open up to each other”, Sadiku said among others.

The bridge's opening decision was made in April 2023, but no steps have been taken towards its implementation.

Currently at the head of the Northern Mitrovica municipality is Erden Attic, also from Vetevendosje Movement.

After the bridge's opening calls, the European Union has also reacted.

European bloc spokesman Peter Stano has also said that the issue of opening the bridge should be discussed within the dialogue.

“Opening the bridge is part of two agreements. But despite our efforts, this bridge has remained closed to traffic. As this is part of the dialogue, everything must be discussed and decided in dialogue with the participation of Kosovo and Serbia”, Stano said on Friday.

The bridge over the Iber River divides Mitrovica in the southern, inhabited Albanian majority, and in the northern, inhabited Serb majority since 1999.

Within the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue, the parties have agreed that the bridge will open up for circulation, but this has never been realised in practice. Only one side of it is open for pedestrians.

Against the opening of the bridge is the Serbian List, the main party of Serbs in Kosovo, which enjoys the support of official Belgrade.

According to her, the opening of the bridge for vehicles is “absolutely unnecessary, unacceptable and an escalating movement aimed at further destabilising the situation on the ground”.

The citizens with whom Free Europe Radio has spoken in northern Mitrovica are divided.

Some have commented as a decision that increases tensions, while for others it is seen as the wise “ ”.

EU: Ibër Bridge opens only with bilateral agreements in Brussels