Kosovo Serbs gathered on Monday in front of the office of the Belgrade-backed Srpska Lista party in North Mitrovica to sign a petition against the construction of two new bridges over the Iber/Ibar river.

Igor Simic, vice-president of Srpska Lista, called the planned bridges in the ethnically divided town “politically built objects” whose aim is to put fresh pressure on the Kosovo Serbs who “want to live in peace in their centuries-old heartland”.

The two bridges will connect the northern Serb-majority part of Mitrovica with the southern Albanian-majority part. Construction was launched by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on July 1 and is expected to be completed by autumn.

But Simic said that “no one consulted the Serb people in any way when they decided to start building these bridges”.

He said the existing bridges connecting the two parts of Mitrovica “are absolutely sufficient for people to travel normally from one to the other part of the city”, accusing Prime Minister Albin Kurti of trying to “score cheap political points on Serbian backs… due to his political pre-election campaign and his inability to constitute parliament in Pristina”.

Kosovo has failed to constitute a new parliament since a general election in February. Simic said the petition will be sent to the international community, not to the current ethnic Albanian mayor of North Mitrovica, who he said Serbs do not recognise.

In June, Kosovo’s Ministry of Environment, Spatial Planning and Infrastructure signed a joint memorandum of cooperation with the municipalities of both North Mitrovica and South Mitrovica on the bridges.

Kurti helped to lay the foundations together with the two mayors and the acting ministers for local government, Elbert Krasniqi, and the environment, Liburn Aliu,

The Prime Minister’s Office announced that the new bridges, one for vehicles and pedestrians and the other for pedestrians only, will cost around 3 million euros.

Kurti noted a total of 77 bridges over the river across three countries – Montenegro, Kosovo and Serbia – 35 in Kosovo: “These two new bridges will bring the total number of bridges over the Iber River in the Republic of Kosovo to 37.”

On June 24, the EU tested the load capacity of the existing main bridge in the town. The assessment, it said, was to ensure that any decision on the bridge’s future is based on up-to-date data.

The EU office in Pristina has urged caution.

“The EU is closely coordinating with its international partners in Kosovo regarding the future of the bridge,” the EU office in Pristina told BIRN on June 30.

“In the meantime, we call on the Kosovo authorities to refrain from any uncoordinated actions, including the construction of adjacent bridges. All agreements of the Belgrade-Pristina dialogue, including those related to the bridge, must be fully implemented,” it added.