Rapajic: The Joint Committee for North and South Mitrovica should not deal with major political issues

Aleksandar Rapajic, Program Director of the NGO Center for Advocacy of Democratic Culture from North Mitrovica, told Kosovo Online that the Joint Committee for North and South Mitrovica, which began its work last week, should focus on local issues that require cooperation between the two municipalities, such as the water supply, local infrastructure, or regulation of the Ibar River, and should not deal with larger political issues that fall outside its jurisdiction.

Rapajic notes that the Municipality of North Mitrovica was established under the Ahtisaari Plan, and that the creation of a joint committee for cooperation between North and South Mitrovica was envisioned in order for the city of Mitrovica to function.

“We will see whether the committee will continue its activities after the local elections. We hope that Serbian parties will return to the Municipality of North Mitrovica. We don’t know what the results will be or who will win, and the continuation of the committee’s work will depend not only on who wins in the north, but even more on who wins in the south. In general, the two municipalities must cooperate on certain matters. If they stick to local issues, they can function, provided they manage to avoid politics in all of it,” Rapajic emphasized.

When asked whether the opening of the main bridge over the Ibar River could become a topic for the committee before the local elections, he said that the initiative and pressure on that issue have been present for some time.

“Since the change in local government in North Mitrovica, one of the first initiatives of the Assembly was the opening of the bridge, and that is a sensitive political issue used for political struggle. The opening of the bridge is being framed as Pristina’s final victory over the Serbs in the north. And if such an initiative is brought forward, I believe, as in previous cases, the international community will stop it, because it should be part of negotiations at a higher level, not a decision made by these two municipalities,” Rapajic concluded.