KOSOVO: THE DIVIDED CITY OF MITROVICË / MITROVICA
30/03/2022
Context: the Kosovo war and its independance
In 1999, the Kosovo war started. The armed conflict opposed Serbia and the Serbs from Kosovo to the Albanians from Kosovo and the Kosovo Liberation army ("UÇK" in Albanian). Indeed, the current territory of Kosovo is inhabited by about 90% of Albanians who consider Kosovo as an independant country with a proper Albanian Kosovar identity. On the other hand, Kosovo is also an administrative region of Serbia. Serbs are still very strong today about Kosovo being part of their country. The area indeed is a major element of the Serbian national narrative as it's where the battle of Kosovo Polje occured. The region also counts a lot of Serb Orthodox monastery.
In 2008, the Albanian majority established Kosovo as an independant country with its own institutions and currency (euros, although it is unofficial). In 2020, the independance of Kosovo was recognized by 97 countries out of the 193 represented in the UN and by several worldwide organizations (International Olympic Committee, International Monetary Fund...).
Mitrovica and the Ibar river
Kosovo counts several cities with an important Serbian minority or a Serbian majority. The city of Mitrovicë (in Albanian) / Kosovska Mitrovica (in Serbian) is located up north Kosovo near the Serbian border and counts about 80,000 inhabitants. Serbs represent about 12% of its population.
The city is known for being ethnically divided. Indeed, the Ibar river splits the city in two: a Kosovar Serb majority inhabits the north of Mitrovica and Kosovar Albanians inhabit the south of Mitrovica.
At first glance, it is true that Mitrovica actually definitely illustrates the conflict between Albanian Kosovars and Serbia. The division of the city is actually very material. Down south of Mitrovica you will pay with euros, read the Latin alphabet, see Albanian flags and statues of Albanian Kosovar national heroes and encounter several mosques. Up north you will pay in Serbian dinars, use the Cyrilic alphabet, see Serbian flags and statues of Serbian national heroes and visit many Orthodox churches. But does that really mean that the two sides are totally closed to each others?...
1989: The Trepča mines strike and Milošević
Two elements give Mitrovica a central role in the process of independance of Kosovo. First of all, it is located near the Serbian border and has a big Serbian community. Second of all, the Trepča mines near the city are a major economic concern for both Kosovo and Serbia, but also for their diplomatic allies. Before the Kosovo war, the mines used to bring up to 70% of the gross domestic product of Kosovo.
After Tito's death in 1980, tensions reappeared between the different federations and autonomous province of Yugoslavia. The executive power wasn't as strong as under Tito: the presidents of Yugoslavia sat only for one year and the presidents of the federations have a bigger influence.
At that time, Kosovo wasn't a federation inside Yugoslavia but had a status of autonomous province within the federation of Serbia. Kosovo was isolated within Yugoslavia as it had already grown a strong Albanian nationalist feeling. On the other hand, Serbia was developing a nationalist ideology based on the fear of the project of a Greater Albania.
In 1989, the Albanian workers from the Trepča mines started a hunger strike to protest Serbia's project to eventually revoke the aunomous status of the region. This idea emerged in Serbia after the major students protests in 1981 in Pristina (capital city of Kosovo) to higher the autonomy of the province. In Belgrade, protests occured to oppose the Albanian nationalism. Overall, 180 minors were hospitalized and many arrestations happened.
This strike had a major impact on the diplomatic relations between Serbia and Kosovo. Police repression was avoided this time as the Presidency of Yugoslavia didn't vote in favour of the police reinforcement wanted by Serbia. Nonetheless, the new president of the League of Communists of Serbia since 1986, Slobodan Milošević, used this 1989 strike to emphasize its nationalist narrative and to justify a growing repression from the Serbian police toward the Albanian Kosovars. In 1999, the police discrimination toward the Albanians from Kosovo was the starting point of the war. One month after the end of the strike, Milošević organized a vote at the parliament of Kosovo in Pristina about the revokation of its province status. He also sent the Serbian army to surrender the parliament and prevent riots. The vote was boycotted by the Albanian separatist deputees but was still validated, although it was never actually implemented.
The question of the Serb municipalities
In 2004, assaults from Albanians toward Serbs occured. Serbs were chased from their houses and the Serbian heritage (mostly Orthodox churches) was targeted. Still today, many houses in the north of Kosovoska Mitrovica are in ruins. Indeed, the Serbian part of the city hardly benefits from fundings from Belgrade or the Kosovar State, neither does it from the international community. These riots reveal the influence of medias on both the Albanian and Serbian sense of rivalry. Indeed, the unrest started because a misleading information was reported in an Albanian Kosovar media, stating that three Albanian boys drawned in the Ibar river after being chased by several Serbs.
After the independance of Kosovo in 2008, the Assembly of the Community Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija was created in Kosovska Mitrovica to represent the municipalities in Kosovo that oppose its independance. The municipality of North Mitrovica was created. The other three main Serb-dominated municipalities in Kosovo are located in the region of North Kosovo (Leposavić, Zvečan and Zubin Potok). The idea was to create an alternative legislative power in Kosovo. The representatives were mostly Serbs but there were also members of other minorities such as the Bosniaks (Muslims from Bosnia and Herzegovina), Goranis (Slavic Muslim ethnic group) or Romanis. This representation also shows that the conflict in Kosovo, just like all the post-Yugoslavian conflicts, go way beyong the religious aspect. The elections of this Assembly were called by Belgrade but weren't recognized by the government of Kosovo.
Straight after the independance declaration, some unrests also occured across the country. In Mitrovica, the UN courthouse and some NATO soldiers were attacked by Serbs, which reveals the responsibility of the international community in the war. Indeed, the presence of NATO in Kosovo is still today considered as an agression by the Serbs, especially regarding the NATO bombing during the Kosovo war. On the other hand, the US and EU have strategic interests in the area. The US are active through NATO and through other organizations such as US Aids in the country. In Pristina, Bill Clinton who negociated the peace agreements ending the war actually has its own statue, and it is not rare to see license plates displaying the logo of a US region on Kosovar cars...
After the creation of the Assembly, Serbia sent troops to create a border between North Kosovo and the rest of the country, hoping to keep the Serb-inhabited region. The border enabled Serbia to boycott Kosovar products and also to prevent the NATO forces to establish a border between Kosovo and Serbia and to intervene in North Mitrovica. The Ibar bridge became an important location as North Mitrovica hosts the administration of North Kosovo.
In 2011, the Albanian Kosovar police was ordered to cross the North Kosovo borders. This lead to a two years crisis between the Serb and Albanian Kosovar polices. Some peaceful protests in North Mitrovica, Pristina and other cities from Serb Kosovars occured, although several protesters were injured or killed by NATO and EU forces. In 2012, the mayor of North Kosovska Mitrovica organized a referendum in North Kosovo about the recognition of the institutions of the independance of Kosovo. The recognition was rejected by 99,74% by the referendum was rejected by both Kosovo and Serbia: indeed, Serbia was negociating the recognition of its candidacy to enter EU in exchange of a compromise with the Republic of Kosovo.
In 2013, the Brussel Agreements were signed by Serbia and Kosovo and mediated by EU. They established the integration of North Kosovo in the Republic of Kosovo in exchange of guarantees for the Serb Kosovars. The Assembly of Kosovo and Metohija was dissoluted and the Community of Serb Municipalities was created. However, it has no legislative power anymore and only has a limited influence over some specific fields (economic development, education, health, urban and rural planning). This agreement was perceived by Serbia as a withdrawal of the Serbian institutions and a difficult compromise. In exchange, Serbia's candidacy for entering EU was officially recognized by EU, although the process has never been further.
A city of minors
When I visited the very interesting museum of Mitrovica in the southern part of the city, I had the chance to meet its director Nora Prekazi. Although the museum doesn’t benefit from much help from the Kosovar government, she and her husband renovated the place to organize cultural events and exhibitions about the history of Kosovo. She gave me a tour of the museum and explained that unlike what we can read in the medias, locals of both sides of Mitrovica are not that hostile to each others. One of the reason is that the mining florishing industry has stimulated the immigration to the city until the war. From 1961 to 1971, the population of Mitrovica has grown from 58%. Thus, a lot of people living in the city settled decades ago and don’t have the sense of ground attachement that we may imagine.
The spomenik located on top of Partisan Hill in North Mitrovica and dominating the city actually represents the unity of the miners of Mitrovica. It was built in 1973 and is made of two concrete pilliers that support another big block of concrete. The monument commemorates the minors’ efforts to fight the Axis forces during word war 2. One of the interpretation is that the two pilliers represent Albanian and Serbian ethnicities, which seems very likely to be true as the spomeniks were made to emphasize the unity of the workers across the Yugoslavia.
The locals' initiatives to unify Mitrovica
Nine years after the Brussels Agreements, the Italian soldiers from NATO and the police of Kosovo still patrol the Ibar bridge during the day. The Kosovar and Serbian governements and supranational institutions such as EU or the UN are now helpless to find a new economic stability and bring closer the Serbs and Albanians. The French-German TV channel Arte actually states the Serbs from Mitrovica as a "forgotten minority" ("Kosovo Youngsters - 20 years since the war", 2019). Indeed, North Mitrovica became a very sensible place where any instability could damage the diplomacy between Kosovo, Serbia, the EU and the UN. None of them now want to take the risk to invest in the Serb-inhabited municipality. When walking through North Mitrovica, I actually explored a giant half built and half abandoned sports complex. A sign explained that the venue was funded by EU in 2017, although I've read a few days later that the EU stopped these fundings due to some pressures from the international community.
Where the institutions failed - maintaining the social cohesion within the city - some local initiatives emerged:
- ACDC (Advocacy Center for Democratic Culture), a Serbian Kosovar NGO that organizes concerts and cultural events in Mitrovica.
- Community Building Mitrovica, an Albanian Kosovar NGO that now has an office in North Mitrovica. It organizes projects for all ethnicities in the city such as women networking or summer camps.
- Mitrovica Innovation Center, a Serbian Kosovar NGO proposing classes for all the ethnicities, including Albanian and Serbian courses. Their symbol actually is the miners spomenik.
- The Alternative Dispute Resolution Center - Mediation Center Mitrovica is an NGO organizing dialogues and talks for young people. In 2019, it has achieved a project called "Third side", which is a map of the city displaying the interesting venues both from the north and the south of the city.
A few days after my visit, the museum of Mitrovica was organizing a reading of Croatian poetry where all the ethnicities were welcome (Croatia was part of Yugoslavia and shares the same language as Serbia). The museum was also displaying an intense temporary exhibition of photos of Mitrovica during the war. Nora's project for the museum seems to illustrate well the paradoxe of Mitrovica: while Kosovo Albanians need to preserve the memory of the victims of the war and protect the independant status of Kosovo, both Serbs and Albanians of Mitrovica also need to go over the nationalist rhetorics and find common economic perspectives for the future.