Mitrovica, Kosovo

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Mitrovica / Mitrovicë Косовска Митровица, Kosovska Mitrovica
Bridge over the Ibar, which divides the city in two.

Population (1998)[1]
- Total	110.310
- Density	315/km² (815.8/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
Area code(s)	+381 28
Website: Municipality of Mitrovica

Mitrovica (Albanian: Mitrovica or Mitrovicë, Serbian: Косовска Митровица, Kosovska Mitrovica) is a city and municipality in northern Kosovo. It is the administrative centre of the homonymous district.

Since the end of the Kosovo War of 1999 it has been divided between an ethnic-Albanian-majority south and an ethnic-Serb-majority north (the whole city, however, has an Albanian majority). Its northern part is the de facto capital of the Serb enclave of North Kosovo.

1 Name
2 History
3 Demographics
4 Culture and Education
5 Sports
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

[edit] Name

The city is known as Kosovska Mitrovica (Косовска Митровица) in Serbian listen (help·info) and Mitrovica or Mitrovicë in Albanian. After Tito's death, when the constitutive parts of Yugoslavia had to have one place named each with the word 'Tito's' or 'Tito' in it, the city was also known as Titova Mitrovica (Титова Митровица) in Serbian or Mitrovica e Titos in Albanian.

First mentioned in the 15th century, the town developed around the church of St. Demetrius, and as a result, was named after the saint.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

The city is one of the oldest known settlements in Kosovo, being first mentioned in written documents during the Middle Ages. The name Mitrovica comes from the 14th century, from Saint Demetrius of Thessaloniki,^{[citation needed]} but there are some other legends on the origin of its name.^{[citation needed]} Near Mitrovica is the medieval fortress of Zvečan, which played an important role during the Kingdom of Serbia under Nemanjić rule.

Under Ottoman rule Mitrovica was a typical small Oriental city. Rapid development came in the 19th century after lead ore was discovered and mined in the region, providing what has historically been one of Kosovo's largest industries.

[edit] Mitrovica during and after the Kosovo War

Both the town and municipality were badly affected by the 1999 Kosovo War. According to the OSCE, the area had been the scene of guerrilla activity by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) prior to the war. It came under the command of NATO's French sector; 7,000 French troops are stationed in the western sector with their headquarters in Mitrovica. They were reinforced with a contingent of 1,200 troops from the United Arab Emirates, and a small number of Danish troops.

In the aftermath of the war, the town became a symbol of Kosovo's ethnic divisions. The badly damaged southern half of the town was repopulated by an estimated 50,000 Albanians. Their numbers have since grown with the arrival of refugees from destroyed villages in the countryside.^{[citation needed]} Most of the approximately 6,000 Roma fled to Serbia. In the north, some 8-10,000 Kosovo Serbs remained in their homes, with 2,000 Kosovo Albanians and 1,700 Muslim Slavs living in discrete enclaves on the north bank of the Ibar river. Almost all of the Serbs living on the south bank were displaced to the north. In 2003 the city had an estimated total population of 75,600 and the municipality's population is estimated to be some 105,000.

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Mitrovica became the focus for ethnic clashes between the two communities, exacerbated by the presence of nationalist extremists on both sides. The bridges linking the two sides of the town were guarded by armed groups determined to prevent incursions by the other side. Because of the tense situation in the town, KFOR troops and the UNMIK police were stationed there in large numbers to head off trouble. However, violence and harassment was often directed against members of the "wrong" ethnic community on both sides of the river, necessitating the presence of troops and police checkpoints around individual areas of the city and even in front of individual buildings.

On March 17, 2004, the drowning of one Albanian child in the river prompted major ethnic violence in the town and a Serbian teenager was killed. Demonstrations by thousands of angry Albanians and Serbs mobilised to stop them crossing the river degenerated into rioting and gunfire, leaving at eight Albanians dead and at least 300 injured. The bloodshed sparked off the worst unrest in Kosovo seen since the end of the 1999 war.

The local prison was the scene of an international incident on April 18, 2004 when Ahmad Mustafa Ibrahim, a Jordanian policeman working as a UN prison guard, opened fire on a group of UN police officers leaving a class, killing three. [2]

[edit] Kosovo Independence

Tensions rose considerably in the city of Mitrovica after the Kosovo declared independence on February 17, 2008. Some 150 Kosovo Serb police officers refused to take orders from the ethnic Albanian authorities and were suspended.

Serb protesters prevented ethnic Albanian court employees from crossing the bridge over the Ibar River. UN police raided and seized the courthouse on March 14 using tear gas against Serbs and leaving some of them wounded.

The explosion of hand-grenade injured several UN and NATO staff on March 17; UN forces were later withdrawn from the northern part of Mitrovica.^[1]

[edit] Demographics

Before the 1999 Kosovo War, the municipality had a population estimated by the OSCE to comprise some 116,500 people, 81% of them Kosovo Albanian, 10% Serb and the remainder other nationalities (notably Roma). Most of the non-Albanians lived in the town of Mitrovica, which had a population of 68,000 – 71% Kosovo Albanian, with approximately 9,000 Serbs and 10,141 other nationalities. Kosovo Albanians lived throughout the city, but most Serbs lived in the north side, divided from the predominantly Albanian south side by the Ibar River.

Year/Population	Albanians	%	Serbs	%	Bosniaks	%	Roma/Ashkali	%	Turks	%	Total
Ethnic Composition, Including IDPs
1961	34,481	57.55%	21,533	35.94							59,913
1991	82,837	78	10,698	10.2	5,205	4.96	4,851	4.63	431	0.41
1998	95,231	81.74	10,447	8.96
Current figure	N/A		N/A		2,000	1.76	545	0.48	600	0.53
Source: 1991 census: FRY Institute of Statistics and UNHCR statistics of 1998/OSCE estimates. It is noted that the 1991 census was highly politicised and is thus unreliable. Ref: OSCE [3]^{[dead link – history]}