Vlaskovic: The bridge on the Ibar is far from Andric's bridges that connect, with over 1,000 conflicts occurring there

Journalist Zoran Vlaskovic, in response to announcements by the Pristina authorities that the bridge on the Ibar River, which divides North and South Mitrovica, could be opened for traffic, points out that since 1999, there have been over 1,000 conflicts there, including 125 major incidents, all of which, he emphasizes, were caused by Albanians.

Speaking to Kosovo Online, Vlaskovic says that firearms were used in 26 conflicts and that two people from the Serbian side were killed on March 17, 2004.

"Tear gas, shock and smoke bombs, rubber bullets, and live ammunition marked all the major conflicts," Vlaskovic notes.

He highlighted that February 13, 2000, remains particularly memorable for Serbs, when over 40,000 Albanians from the southern side attempted to violently enter the northern Serbian part of the city under the slogan "March of Peace.”

“At the moment of the attack, a contingent of French KFOR with armored vehicles in five rows was on the bridge, preventing the violent entry of Albanians into the Serbian part of Mitrovica with tear gas, shock and smoke bombs, and rubber bullets,” he said.

Vlaskovic also reports that in all the conflicts to date on the main city bridge on the Ibar, over 230 Serbs, more than 180 KFOR and UN police officers, and over 290 Albanians have been injured, according to cumulative reports from KFOR and UNMIK police issued after each conflict on the bridge that divides Kosovo Mitrovica into the southern, Albanian, and northern, Serbian parts of the city.

He recalls that rolls of barbed wire and metal barriers were on the bridge until the summer of 2009, when they were quietly removed by KFOR.

“The bridge is far from those Andric's ‘bridges that connect riverbanks, people, shorten paths, and represent the beauty of a city,’” Vlaskovic concluded.