PRISTINA -- Kosovar President Vjosa Osmani says Kosovo is in consultations with the international community on opening the main bridge in Mitrovica that divides ethnic Albanian and Serbian communities.
Osmani told RFE/RL in an interview on August 19 that opening the bridge, which has been a point of contention in Mitrovica because of concerns that it would increase already high ethnic tensions, is a priority and could turn into a “symbol of normalization” in relations between Kosovo and Serbia.
The bridge divides the Albanian-majority southern side and a Serb-majority northern side of the city, Kosovar authorities have been seeking a way to open it in a way that does not provoke conflict with Kosovo's international partners.
“Of course, we need to ask for the bridge to open very soon because we are already eight years too late,” she said, adding that this doesn’t mean that Kosovo has told its allies in the Quint -- an informal decision-making group consisting of the United States, France, Germany, Italy, and Britain -- that Pristina would disregard security concerns or open the bridge without working with them.
Osmani said it would not make sense for Pristina to take the step without making sure that its security partners were on board because “it would backfire” and “that is not in the interest of Kosovo.”
Prime Minister Albin Kurti at the beginning of August announced plans to open the bridge to vehicle traffic despite opposition from members of both NATO and Quint. The announcement sparked protests by Serbs in northern Kosovo, who expressed concerns that the move would increase ethnic tensions and impact their safety.
SEE ALSO: Kurti Defends Plans To Open Mitrovica Bridge Despite International CriticismNATO's Kosovo Force (KFOR) peacekeeping mission and the European Union have requested that the matter be taken up by Brussels, but Osmani said she opposes this given that Kosovo and Serbia already have an agreement and the two sides consider the issue closed.
Talks will continue, she said, but it will be crucial that the two sides fully coordinate with NATO.
Osmani said that she spoke about the opening of the bridge with Kurti about a month ago and they agreed that there must be coordination with NATO’s presence in Kosovo, which includes EU partners that are members of NATO and others that are not, along with the United States, which she described as “our main security partner.”
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Proposed Bridge Opening Raises Tensions With Kosovo Serbs
The current security assessment regarding the bridge is critical and open to exploitation by Serbia, Osmani said.
“There is a constant threat, as we all know, and as we've said it publicly many times, from forces that are financed, instigated, as well as pushed politically and trained militarily by Serbia,” she told RFE/RL. “Of course, it is in Serbia's interest to always cause some sort of a tension in Kosovo.”
She noted that Milan Radoicic, a Kosovar Serb politician who has claimed he is the sole mastermind of an armed attack on the village of Banjska in September 2023 that left a Kosovo police officer and three attackers dead, is still free.
Serbia has refused to extradite him to face charges in Kosovo despite an arrest warrant issued by Interpol, but there has been no formal decision.
SEE ALSO: Who Was Behind The Deadly Attack At The Orthodox Monastery In Kosovo?She also claimed there are people in Kosovo who “still try to hide their weapons,” adding that even as recently as just a few days ago Kosovar police confiscated weapons “that are hidden by certain people in the north” who cooperate with “gangs” in Serbia.
She also repeated her claim that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic is the “mastermind” behind the hiding of weapons and the deadly attack in September -- a charge that Vucic has vehemently denied.
“It's not a political assumption. I know for a fact that Aleksandar Vucic is directly involved in ordering the Banjska attack” she said, adding that Kosovo’s NATO partners and other Balkan countries know this as well.
“When you deal with minds like that, you need to gather around, regroup, reorganize, understand who your friends and partners are, and work with them to prevent such scenarios which are trying to bring our region back to the 1990s,” she said.