Twenty-five years after the end of the Kosovo war, relations between Belgrade and Pristina remain difficult. One main bone of contention is whether or not to set up an association of Serb-majority municipalities in Kosovo. Ethnic Serbs see it as a way to exercise their collective rights; Kosovar Albanians see it as a threat to Kosovo's future.
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00:00Lepo Savic Town Hall is still under police protection a year after violent protests erupted
00:05outside the building over the results of the local election in April 2023.
00:09The election was won by Kosovo Albanian Lulzim Hitemi, who received just 100 votes.
00:15Only Kosovo Albanians voted in the election because Kosovo Serbs in the town boycotted
00:19the poll.
00:20For this reason, Kosovo Serbs considered Hitemi's victory illegitimate and tried to prevent
00:25him taking office.
00:26Undeterred, the newly elected mayor responded by sleeping in the town hall.
00:57Lepo Savic is one of four municipalities in northern Kosovo with a majority Serb population.
01:09The local institutions in these municipalities were managed by Kosovo Serbs until 2022, when
01:14ethnic Serbian staff at the institutions walked out of their jobs in protest at the non-implementation
01:20of agreements between Belgrade and Pristina and boycott of the local elections.
01:25Despite extremely low turnout, Kosovo Albanians were elected mayors in all four municipalities.
01:30When Kosovo Serbs tried to prevent them entering the municipal buildings, there was violence.
01:35Citizens, journalists and members of the NATO peacekeeping force were injured.
01:40The situation escalated at the end of September 2023, when a group of armed ethnic Serbs ambushed
01:46a Kosovo police patrol in the village of Banska.
01:49Three aggressors and one Kosovo policeman were killed.
01:52The Kosovo authorities consider it a terrorist act planned in Belgrade.
01:57To this day, Brussels-mediated attempts at dialogue have not managed to either calm tensions
02:02or get Kosovo Serbs to return to work at the institutions.
02:07Aleksandar Arsenijevic, leader of the New Serbian Democracy Party in northern Kosovo,
02:12thinks that mistakes were made on both sides.
02:15The only way to ensure the rights of the Serbian community, he says, is to set up the Association
02:20of Serb-Majority Municipalities.
02:24The only thing that can be solved is the tolerance of Pristina.
02:31I would like to say that now the joystick and stick for managing the crisis are in the hands of Mr. Albin Kurti.
02:38But Albin Kurti, Prime Minister of Kosovo, has repeatedly delayed the establishment of
02:42the Association due to political disagreements and concerns about the impact on Kosovo's
02:46sovereignty and territorial integrity.
02:50Gasmir Raci, former advisor to the Kosovo government on negotiations with Serbia and
02:54Brussels, says that the Association can only be formed on the basis of the laws of Kosovo.
03:00There is a real fear that if the Association is established,
03:05it could become the new Serbian republic in Kosovo.
03:08And we know what problems the Serbian republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing.
03:13We are not interested in the Association because we have made a major compromise with the Association.
03:18And the compromises of the Association are in the Constitution of Kosovo,
03:21where Kosovo is a multi-ethnic state, it is a whole.
03:25The situation in northern Kosovo is currently calm.
03:28Pedestrians are now once again crossing the bridge over the Ibar River in Mitrovica,
03:32a bridge that separates the Albanian majority south of the city from the Serb majority north.
03:38In times of tension, people don't use the bridge.
03:41The Kosovo police have suggested that it might be possible to open the bridge to traffic soon.
03:45Local Kosovo Serbs fear that this will only lead to new tension.
03:50Meanwhile, Lulzim Hatemi is going about his business as mayor of Leposavic.
03:55His deputy, Marina Bojgojevic, is from the Serbian community.
04:00She is one of the few Kosovo Serbs who agreed to continue working for the Kosovo institutions.
04:05I will be punished in this way, but I have to say that this is the real situation of the Republic of Kosovo,
04:20with all the laws and regulations that the Republic of Kosovo demands from us.
04:26The citizens are not interested in who is the mayor.
04:31The citizens are interested in appointing the mayor of Hatemi,
04:35appointing Bojgojevic, appointing the citizens, appointing the youth, appointing the workers.
04:41They want a better life, they want to have a job.
04:46Lulzim Hatemi no longer sleeps in his office.
04:49And despite the ongoing tension, he will stay mayor of Leposavic,
04:53at least until next year's local elections.