In the coming weeks, Pristina with the support of Brussels will boost pressure on Belgrade, and Serbs in the north of Kosovo and Metohija, to remove the “Peace Park” from the bridge over the Ibar River in Kosovska Mitrovica.
The new Prime Minister in Pristina, Isa Mustafa, will try to impose it as one of the main topics in the political dialogue with Belgrade. As announced, he will meet with Serbian PM, Aleksandar Vucic on 8 and 9 February at the EU headquarters. In addition, Brussels set solving of the issue of “Peace Park” as one of the conditions for the opening of the first Serbian negotiating chapters with the EU.
On the other hand, Belgrade will insist that for the Serbs in the north, “Peace Park” is above all security issue. They claim that nothing on the bridge, or around it, can be touched until mayors from the north and south of the city, Goran Rakic and Agim Bahtrija, agree on it.
Director of the Office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Djuric repeated that the two sides have already agreed in Brussels first to carry out a technical assessment of the condition on the bridge over the Ibar River, as well as that the mayors will agree on a solution that would satisfy the interests and opinions of citizens of both parts of the city: “Nothing will be touched until such solution will be found,” said Djuric.
The mayor of the northern Kosovska Mitrovica, Goran Rakic says that any unilateral action related to the removing of the “Peace Park” would provoke new tensions, hoping that is not in anyone’s interest: “The very name “Peace Park” tells what it represents. As mayor of the northern part of Mitrovica I do not give up reconciliation, as all our citizens. I do not want to think the other way, except that “Peace Park” will remain what it should be – a symbol of reconciliation in this region.”
Rakic denied allegations that the “Peace Park” restricts freedom of movement of citizens between the southern and northern parts of the city, especially, because there are four more bridges that connect the citizens of two parts of Mitrovica.
