Kosovo’s prime minister calls for fully reopening a bridge in Mitrovica. But the West is wary

Associated Press

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s prime minister says that fully reopening a bridge in Mitrovica would be another step toward free movement and wasn’t a threat to anyone. But Western powers are wary of the potential move. They say it could increase tensions. The bridge has been closed to passenger vehicle traffic for more than a decade. Minority ethnic Serbs have erected barricades time and again since 2011 because they say “ethnic cleansing” will be carried out against them if ethnic Albanians can freely travel over the bridge into their part of the city in northern Kosovo. Mitrovica is divided into a Serb-dominated north and ethnic Albanian south of the city and the two sides rarely mix.