Trading with the enemy in Mitrovica, Kosovo. - RUhosting

which were in turn disbanded in favour of larger municipalities in 1959-1960. The municipality of Zvecan
was created and detached from the municipality of Mitrovica in 1991. The detachment of several areas of
Mitrovica created Serb-dominated municipalities surrounding Mitrovica but made the imbalance between
Albanians and Serbs in Mitrovica itself bigger. According to the 1991 census Mitrovica was 78,9 % Albanian
and 10,2 % Serbian. In the late 1990's this contrast became larger with only the two square kilometres of the
north being in an ethnic-balance as around 10.000 Albanians and 10.000 Serbs were living there (ICG, 2005).
During the NATO bombing campaign most of the Albanians living in Mitrovica North were expelled by
Serbian security forces. Some managed to come back after the conflict, and most of these settled in Bosniak
mahalla (of the Turkish word 'mahalle' meaning a distinct area in a settlement populated by either a minority
or a large extended family). But as Serbs created a defence force to prevent Albanian entry into the northern
part of the city and French condoned off the bridges most could not return. The few Serb homes left in
Mitrovica south were burned and looted out of revenge by Albanians as was the Roma mahalla where 6.000
Roma lived. (ICG, 2005).
This division hardened in the following months, with movement across the bridges restricted by KFOR, and
Serbs creating a paramilitary force - the Bridge Watchers - to defend against Albanians. February 2000 saw
more violence which caused 1/3 of the remaining Albanians in north Mitrovica to flee. In the following years
more attacks and riots would take place by both communities against each other or against the international
presence (ICG, 2005). On the 8 th of April 2002, UNMIK police officers were attacked with grenades and
snipers in north Mitrovica. By then people were already less impressed by such an event, as a spokesperson
called it “merely the latest episode of violence that has gripped the city since the UN assumed responsibility
for Kosovo in June 1999” (ICG, 2002). The many cases of violence between Albanians and Serbs and
violence against the IC by both groups not only have a negative impact on life in Mitrovica but on entire
Kosovo. “Events in the city are radicalising both the Albanian and Serbian communities throughout the
province” (ICG, 2002). Violence in Mitrovica has sometimes led to “revenge” violence in other areas of
Kosovo and it keeps the news filled with stories about the dangerous “other”. The situation in the north –
where Serbia still has an influence over Kosovo's territory – is a cause for Albanian frustration and fear that
Kosovo might be divided. It has been threatened by Albanian politicians that they will take this matter in
their own hands (ICG 3 June 2002), and I've heard these threats being echoed by local Albanians in 2008 on
occasion (field notes). Hopefully this description makes it clear that Mitrovica is not only a divided city but
also a dividing city: it forms the spill in the enduring Albanian-Serb tensions in Kosovo.
4.3.2. Population
The inter-ethnic tensions and conflict had and still have a large impact on the population demographic of
Mitrovica. Mitrovica is currently home to approximately 130.000 people (ECIKS, 2009), this is an increase
of 30% since 2002 when the population of the municipality of Mitrovica was 100.000 (ICG, 2002). These
people live in an total area of 350 km2, divided over a total of 47 settlements in the municipality of
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