| Deal ends weeks of protests in K. Mitrovica |
| 11 May 2009 | 18:16 -> 21:00
| Source:
Beta, Tanjug |
KOSOVSKA MITROVICA --
The Serbs of Brđani, in northern Kosovska Mitrovica, ended their protests on Monday after reaching an agreement with UNMIK.
 | Serbs protest in Brđani last week (Beta)
|
According to Tanjug news agency, this agreement allows them to start the reconstruction of their houses in this district.
One of the Serbs' representatives, Nebojša Minić, stated on Monday that they reached an agreement with the international community representatives to start the reconstruction of five houses on Wednesday.
"We have accepted the terms of the international community which has promised they will no longer tolerate the projects of the southern municipality [of Kosovska Mitrovica] and that they will not realize the south municipality's projects in the northern part without an approval of Serb local institutions, primarily of the municipality of [northern] Kosovska Mitrovica," Minić said.
The town is divided into ethnic Albanian southern part, and predominantly Serb north.
According to Tanjug, Minić said they met with the UNMIK representatives "and thus indirectly with the EULEX officials as well".
"They promised security. First, we asked to be allowed to split the period into weeks [for the interchangeable reconstruction of Serb and Albanian houses], but they said they would assume responsibility to control the whole situation, so that in the following period it will be the UNMIK administration and EULEX police, together with KFOR, that will be responsible for everything," Minić said.
All this, according to Milić, means that nothing can be built in the north until the Serbs approve it.
There are some 2,000 of them in Brđani. On the very line of separation that runs through that neighborhood 15 Serb and as many Albanian homes stood before the conflict.
Beta news agency reports that the deal was made this morning, "after EULEX officials learned about an agreement reached in 2000", which called for both sides not to renew houses around the separation line, that cuts through Brđani and ethnically divides Kosovska Mitrovica.
The Serbs protested for two weeks over the reconstruction of the ethnic Albanian houses, demanding that they also be enabled to return to their homes in Kosovo and reconstruct their houses in this part of Kosovska Mitrovica. EULEX police used tear gas and stun grenades against them almost daily.
Two weeks ago, the Albanians started the reconstruction of their houses in Brđani, destroyed in the conflicts in Kosovo in 1999. In the same district, there are also houses that are owned by Serbs, and they are to begin their reconstruction works as of Wednesday.
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