00:00Lepo Savic Town Hall is still under police protection a year after violent protests erupted
00:05outside the building over the results of the local election in April 2023.
00:09The election was won by Kosovo Albanian Lulzim Hitemi, who received just 100 votes.
00:15Only Kosovo Albanians voted in the election because Kosovo Serbs in the town boycotted
00:19the poll.
00:20For this reason, Kosovo Serbs considered Hitemi's victory illegitimate and tried to prevent
00:25him taking office.
00:26Undeterred, the newly elected mayor responded by sleeping in the town hall.
00:57Lepo Savic is one of four municipalities in northern Kosovo with a majority Serb population.
01:09The local institutions in these municipalities were managed by Kosovo Serbs until 2022, when
01:14ethnic Serbian staff at the institutions walked out of their jobs in protest at the non-implementation
01:20of agreements between Belgrade and Pristina and boycott of the local elections.
01:25Despite extremely low turnout, Kosovo Albanians were elected mayors in all four municipalities.
01:30When Kosovo Serbs tried to prevent them entering the municipal buildings, there was violence.
01:35Citizens, journalists and members of the NATO peacekeeping force were injured.
01:40The situation escalated at the end of September 2023, when a group of armed ethnic Serbs ambushed
01:46a Kosovo police patrol in the village of Banska.
01:49Three aggressors and one Kosovo policeman were killed.
01:52The Kosovo authorities consider it a terrorist act planned in Belgrade.
01:57To this day, Brussels-mediated attempts at dialogue have not managed to either calm tensions
02:02or get Kosovo Serbs to return to work at the institutions.
02:07Aleksandar Arsenijevic, leader of the New Serbian Democracy Party in northern Kosovo,
02:12thinks that mistakes were made on both sides.
02:15The only way to ensure the rights of the Serbian community, he says, is to set up the Association
02:20of Serb-Majority Municipalities.
02:24The only thing that can be solved is the tolerance of Pristina.
02:31I would like to say that now the joystick and stick for managing the crisis are in the hands of Mr. Albin Kurti.
02:38But Albin Kurti, Prime Minister of Kosovo, has repeatedly delayed the establishment of
02:42the Association due to political disagreements and concerns about the impact on Kosovo's
02:46sovereignty and territorial integrity.
02:50Gasmir Raci, former advisor to the Kosovo government on negotiations with Serbia and
02:54Brussels, says that the Association can only be formed on the basis of the laws of Kosovo.
03:00There is a real fear that if the Association is established,
03:05it could become the new Serbian republic in Kosovo.
03:08And we know what problems the Serbian republic in Bosnia and Herzegovina is facing.
03:13We are not interested in the Association because we have made a major compromise with the Association.
03:18And the compromises of the Association are in the Constitution of Kosovo,
03:21where Kosovo is a multi-ethnic state, it is a whole.
03:25The situation in northern Kosovo is currently calm.
03:28Pedestrians are now once again crossing the bridge over the Ibar River in Mitrovica,
03:32a bridge that separates the Albanian majority south of the city from the Serb majority north.
03:38In times of tension, people don't use the bridge.
03:41The Kosovo police have suggested that it might be possible to open the bridge to traffic soon.
03:45Local Kosovo Serbs fear that this will only lead to new tension.
03:50Meanwhile, Lulzim Hatemi is going about his business as mayor of Leposavic.
03:55His deputy, Marina Bojgojevic, is from the Serbian community.
04:00She is one of the few Kosovo Serbs who agreed to continue working for the Kosovo institutions.
04:05I will be punished in this way, but I have to say that this is the real situation of the Republic of Kosovo,
04:20with all the laws and regulations that the Republic of Kosovo demands from us.
04:26The citizens are not interested in who is the mayor.
04:31The citizens are interested in appointing the mayor of Hatemi,
04:35appointing Bojgojevic, appointing the citizens, appointing the youth, appointing the workers.
04:41They want a better life, they want to have a job.
04:46Lulzim Hatemi no longer sleeps in his office.
04:49And despite the ongoing tension, he will stay mayor of Leposavic,
04:53at least until next year's local elections.
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