Since the opening of the new place "Missini Sweets" this month in northern Mitrovica, a small number of guests have enjoyed its drinks and sweets. This business is facing difficulties because it is run by an ethnic Albanian, and the local ethnic Serbs refuse to enter, writes Reuters.
A video posted in August on the Telegram channel popular among Serbs, which has received thousands of views, called for a boycott of the cafe when it opens because it is located in a part of the city with a majority Serbian population. In the same video, a nearby store owned by Albanians was also mentioned, which, according to one worker, experienced similar treatment.
"At the moment we don't have Serbian customers because there is a campaign on social networks telling people not to enter my store," said the owner of Missini Sweets in Mitrovica, Astrit Misini.
Reuters reminds that violence has erupted in Mitrovica several times since it became ethnically divided after the Kosovo war in 1999, when Serbs left the southern part of Kosovo and concentrated in the north, while Albanians moved to the south. Now, 25 years later, relations in the city are deteriorating again, residents, officials and shopkeepers say, amid official efforts to reopen a flashpoint bridge between the communities.
The tensions that exist 16 years after the declaration of Kosovo's independence are worrying Western officials and peacekeepers who fear that the problems in Mitrovica could cause wider tensions between Serbia and Kosovo, at a time when both countries are considering joining the European Union - provided they resolve their differences. according to Reuters.
Mitrovica, with a population of 84.000, is divided between 20.000 Serbs who live north of the Ibar River, which runs through the center of the city, and ethnic Albanians who live in the southern neighborhoods.
Reuters writes that there is no law regulating who can open a business where, although shop owners have mostly stuck to their ethnic communities in the Serb-dominated north or the Albanian south.
However, according to the agency, the government of Kosovo Prime Minister Aljbin Kurti encourages Albanian companies to move to the north and sometimes, with heavy security, comes to Albanian restaurants. Kurti says he wants to unite communities.
Misini does not see himself as part of any government program. However, he said he opened the store in the north after receiving "suggestions from the state that there are appropriate conditions for business and that it is now safe."
Ethnic Serbs see this as part of Kurti's wider initiative to expand Albanian influence in northern Kosovo.
"The Kurti government's moves in the north over the past few years, while legal ... often seem like hostile usurpation," said Frauke Zebas, a fellow at the German Institute for Foreign and Security Affairs in Brussels.
On the other hand, many ethnic Albanians say that Serbs incite hatred on the Internet and in the streets, and as proof they cite the killing of a policeman by ethnic Serbs in the village of Banjska in the north of Kosovo in 2023. Serbs deny that they are the problem, but admit that there is division.
“This place is lost. You can't live here," said Bojana, who lives in the north of Mitrovica, commenting on the new shops and mood in the area. She did not disclose her last name for fear of reprisals from her fellow Serbs.
"Once I entered these Albanian stores and my people told me that I was a traitor. But I also saw that I was not welcome among Albanians in those stores because the waiters were looking at me all the time".
Tensions came to a head last month when Kurti said he wanted to reopen the bridge in Mitrovica that crosses the Ibar and connects the communities. The bridge has been the epicenter of post-war conflict since 2000 and is mostly closed to traffic.
The troops of KFOR, the peacekeeping force under the leadership of NATO, are still guarding it.
Western officials warned Kurti that opening the bridge could spark ethnic violence and endanger NATO troops stationed there. NATO officials have visited Kosovo in recent months to persuade Kurti to step down. The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, also urged caution in a meeting with Kurti in August, the sources said.
"We strongly oppose the unilateral move to open the bridge," a senior NATO official told Reuters. "We do not want to risk any violence that could endanger KFOR soldiers".
Kurti says reopening the bridge will unite the divided community. In an interview with Reuters, he said that Belgrade wants the bridge to remain closed in order to separate the north from the rest of Kosovo.
"I think that those in Serbia who insist on the bridge remaining closed want to preserve the dream of the division of Kosovo," he said.
Ognjen Zdravković, a Serb from Mitrovica, said that he would not enter "Missini Sweets". This area is "still ours," he told Reuters.
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