ABSTRACT
This chapter has a central element: division. More specifically, it aims to explore the idiosyncrasies of division(s) in the Northern Kosovan city of Mitrovica. Even though there are some studies that focus on Mitrovica as a divided city (LémayHebert 2012; Björkdahl and Gusić 2013), this town has not been included in any major comparative study; unlike Belfast, Mostar, Sarajevo, Nicosia and Jerusalem, which are often used as paradigmatic examples of deeply-divided cities (Calame and Charlesworth 2009; Davis and Libertun de Duren 2011; Bollens 2013). Mitrovica is, therefore, a relative newcomer in the league of divided cities and, as such, it is still under-scrutinised in academia. It is essential to note that the chapter’s point of departure is non-normative: the main aim is to understand the problématique, not to provide guidelines for overcoming divisions in the city. In order to illustrate the aforementioned division and gain understanding of the multiplicity of divisions in Mitrovica, the chapter will examine graphic material obtained during several field-trips to the city between 2008 and 2014. It will discuss the historical and contemporary background of these divisions, highlighting, in particular, the collapse of Yugoslavia and the Kosovo war in the late 1990s, which culminated in the 1999 NATO intervention. The chapter will also engage in a more general debate concerning the general patterns of city divisions, based on the Calame and Charlesworth (2009) categorisation. These patterns will subsequently be applied to the Mitrovica case. Division will be analysed in this chapter primordially as a social practice. As Bollens (2013: 190) points out, the ‘boundaries exist not merely as static lines, but manifest themselves in numerous social practices’. As the several interviews conducted by the author show, these lines are deeply-rooted in peoples’ minds and in social practices that go beyond barricades and bridges, which very few dare to cross, on the Ibar. The divisions are, indeed, urban, political, cultural, linguistic, religious, institutional, historical and geopolitical. Mitrovica epitomises Paasi’s (1999: 670) assertion that the meaning of boundaries is ultimately reproduced in local everyday life. In other words, segregation is deeply embedded in Mitrovica to the extent that, as this chapter will attempt to scrutinise, it dominates every sphere and social practice in the city. However, before embarking on the more analytical sections, it is necessary to provide some factual information
about the city, or perhaps it would be more accurate to say ‘the cities’, given that, in most aspects, Northern Mitrovica and Southern Mitrovica operate as completely distinct entities. If one takes both sides of the city together, Mitrovica is the biggest city in Northern Kosovo. According to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), South Mitrovica is inhabited by 71,909 people, of which 96.5 per cent are Albanian, and 0.02 per cent are Serbs.1 The north of the city has a population of 29,460, mostly inhabited by Serbs (76.5 per cent) although there is a mixed area, Bošnjačka Mahala, which contains a significant number of Albanians and Bosniaks. Unlike in Serbian enclaves south of the Ibar River, the number of Serbs in Northern Mitrovica has gradually grown due to relocation of Serbian IDP from the rest of Kosovo. The OSCE estimates this figure to oscillate between 5,000 and 7,000, that is, between a quarter and a third of the total Serbian population. Miloš Luković (2007: 85) distinguishes three different categories amongst the Serbs in Northern Mitrovica depending on when they arrived to the city; Mitrovĉani, who arrived before the Second World War and consider themselves natives, newcomers, who arrived after 1945 and, finally, IDPs who settled in Mitrovica after 1999. Northern Mitrovica stands at the unofficial border between the municipalities of Northern Kosovo,2 where the population is overwhelmingly Serbian, and the south, which is mostly populated by Albanians. Unlike the Serbian enclaves in the South, where Serbs are more dispersed and less organised, the so-called North, and particularly its unofficial capital Mitrovica, has witnessed several protests against Kosovo’s independence, Priština rule and the institutions of the self-declared and partly-recognised ‘Republic of Kosovo’. Thus since 1999, Northern Mitrovica has functioned as a separate urban entity and semi-capital; moreover, the relocation of the University of Priština and the allocation of governmental buildings such as Telecom Srbija, the government of Serbia office for Kosovo and Metohija, various Serbian schools, hospitals and, until recently, the Serbian courts, has only served to enhance its prestige. In brief, Northern Mitrovica has institutionally benefited, so to speak, from the enclavisation, the ethnification and the frictional dynamics that have dominated Kosovo since 1999.
