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Lawrence Marzouk
5 February 2010
The International Civilian Representative in Kosovo, Pieter Feith, has said the appointment of a team to create a new Serb-majority municipality in the divided city of Mitrovica could herald a 'new beginning'.
The comments came as he announced that the 14-strong team Municipal Preparation Team had been appointed and would now prepare all the necessary resources, properties and administrative structures for the creation of the new municipality, before elections are held in the autumn.
He said: "This has the potential to be a new beginning for everyone in the new municipality, with the final aim to make Mitrovicë/Mitrovica North a municipality with a positive, sustainable future, safe and prosperous for the people living there."
Mr Feith heads the International Civilian Office, which is charged with implementing the Comprehensive Proposal for the Kosovo Status Settlement, otherwise known as the Ahtisaari package.
The settlement, which has been opposed by Serbia and its allies, led to Kosovo’s declaration of independence in February 2008.
The package also includes a programme of decentralisation and the creation of new, Serb-majority municipalities - Graçanicë/Gracanica, Kllokot-Vërbovc/Klokot-Vrbovac, Partes/Parteš, Ranillug/Ranilug, and Mitrovicë/Mitrovica North, as well as the expansion of the existing municipality Novobërdë/Novo Brdo.
Just Mitrovicë/Mitrovica and Partes/Parteš were excluded from the November 2009 local elections because of delays in appointing the municipal teams. Serbs turned out in relatively high numbers during the poll to elect mayors and municipal assembly members to their new town halls.
Mr Feith said: “I commend these men and women for joining the team that will set foundation stones for a new, positive future for their community. They will prepare for the establishment of a new municipality that will have serving citizens as its top priority. They will have full support from the International Civilian Office.
“Creating the new municipality of Mitrovicë/Mitrovica North as part of a single system of local government across Kosovo will bring municipal government closer to the community, promote economic development and facilitate solutions to concrete problems and access to greater resources.
“In the new municipality, the citizens will have a real say over where the budget will be spent and how public services will be organized.”
The city of Mitrovica, in north Kosovo, has been divided along ethnic lines since the end of the conflict in 1999, with ethnic Serbs in the north and ethnic Albanians in the south.
The area surrounding Mitrovica and north of the river Ibar, including the municipalities of Zubin Potok, Leposavic and Zvecan, which all border Serbia, remains under the control of Belgrade, which provides for most public services through its own institutions.
Elections to the new municipality, and its creation, are a key plank of the ICO’s controversial plan to bring the north of Kosovo under the control of Pristina. The strategy has been met by fierce opposition from the Serbian government.
The appointed members of the municipal preparation team will be joined by one representative of the Ministry of Local Government Administration, one representative of the ‘mother municipality’ and one representative of the International Civilian Office.
A spokeswoman for the ICO said that the names of the appointees could not yet be released as the paperwork had not been completed.
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8 February 2010
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