Divided City By War, Perceptions Of Communities For Challenges And Integration. The Case Of Mitrovica

Since the war of 1999, the city of Mitrovica in Kosovo is divided into two parts, consequently causing demographic changes. This had imposed the administrative division of the city which through the Ahtisaari Plan formed South Mitrovica with Albanian majority and North Mitrovica with Serb majority. Despite the fact that Mitrovica after the war has always been seen as an Albanian-Serbian dispute, the reality is that in both municipalities are present other communities that participate in the public life of the city. So far, the administrative border line between the two municipalities has not been marked, which is hostage to some disputes for some Albanian villages that are geographically located on the northern side of the Ibar River, but which also belong to the south with the Ahtisaari Plan. This is also manifested in their electoral participation. The method used in the paper is the empirical method, conducting a survey with 100 respondents (50 in South Mitrovica and 50 in the North) with community members with the random method on their knowledge of the participation of the respective communities in municipal institutions. Among the paper I am focusing mainly in the outcomes of the survey which I realized Because the aim of this paper is to pave the way for further studies for whom which will be interested in this topic in the future. The importance of the paper consists in the fact that despite the trumpeting of municipal officials on the participation of communities in municipal bodies and concern with their situation, such field research presents the reality of different communities, challenges in participation and decisionmaking.