New bridge for vehicles over the Ibar River opens

On Tuesday morning, one of the two bridges that the acting Government of Kosovo began building months ago over the Ibar River, which divides Mitrovica into the Albanian-populated south and the Serb-populated north, was opened.

Kosovo's acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, wrote on Facebook that "less than two months were needed to build the 36th bridge in Kosovo over the Ibar River."

"The bridge for vehicle crossing has been open to traffic since 9:00 today," he wrote.

Earlier, the acting Minister of Internal Affairs, Xhelal Sveçla, published a photo of cars crossing the new bridge and wrote: "Dear citizens of Mitrovica and all of Kosovo, congratulations on the new bridge."

Kosovo authorities began construction of two bridges on either side of the main bridge over the Ibar River, despite opposition from local Serbs and reactions from the international community.

The Kosovo government has repeatedly said that the construction of these bridges – one for pedestrians and the other for vehicles – is intended to connect North Mitrovica with South Mitrovica, a city that has been ethnically divided since the war.

She allocated about three million euros for their construction and said that both would be completed in the fall.

Their construction was also opposed by the Serbian List, the largest Serb party in Kosovo that enjoys the support of Belgrade, which also filed a petition against it, which received over 3,500 signatures.

The European Union has said that the construction of two new bridges over the Ibar River in Mitrovica “has practical and political importance,” and that any infrastructure project between North and South Mitrovica requires close coordination and dialogue between all communities involved.

"It is imperative that these projects reflect the will and needs of local communities," the response said.

Meanwhile, as construction work began, prosecutors announced that they had authorized investigations due to suspicions of possible misuse of public funds in the process of concluding the contract with the relevant company.

On July 10, the Prosecution officially confirmed that it authorized the Kosovo Police to investigate the manner in which the contract for this project was concluded, but did not share any other data.

New bridges are being built near the main bridge over the Ibar, which is part of the Freedom of Movement Agreement reached within the framework of the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue.

This bridge is known for ethnic clashes after the war and is therefore under the supervision of KFOR forces.

The main bridge is open only to pedestrians, while the Kosovo Government had announced its opening to traffic in July last year - which had caused tensions and reactions from the international community.

Kosovo and Serbia had agreed that the bridge would be opened to traffic in 2014, as part of the dialogue for the normalization of relations.

The revitalization of the bridge and the removal of all barricades placed by local Serbs were planned.

In 2016, a new implementation plan was agreed upon to overcome disagreements over interpretations of previous agreements. According to this plan, the bridge was to be opened to traffic in January 2017.

The revitalization works were completed in June 2018, while the bridge – in which 1.5 million euros were invested – has never been opened to vehicles, but only to pedestrians.REL