page_title: Mitrovica, Kosovo
section_title: Modern
hierarchical_section_title: Mitrovica, Kosovo / History / Modern
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Vue du pont "AUSTERLITZ" séparant la partie sud de la partie nord de la ville de KOSOVSKA MITROVICA.English: A view of the Austerlitz Bridge that separates the northern and southern parts of Mitrovica, Kosovo.
context_page_description: Mitrovica or Kosovska Mitrovica is a city and municipality located in Kosovo. Settled on the banks of Ibar and Sitnica rivers, the city is the administrative center of the District of Mitrovica.
  In 2013, following the North Kosovo crisis, the Serb-majority municipality of North Mitrovica was created, dividing the city in two administrative units.
  According to the 2011 Census, in Mitrovica live 84,235 inhabitants, 71,909 of which in the southern municipality and 12,326 in North Mitrovica.
context_section_description: Both the town and municipality were badly affected by the 1999 Kosovo War. According to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (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 were 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.
  Most of the approximately 6,000 Roma fled to Serbia, or were relocated to one of two resettlement camps, Cesmin Lug, or Osterode, in North Kosovska Mitrovica. In the north, live some 17,000 Kosovo Serbs, with 2,000 Kosovo Albanians and 1,700 Bosniaks inhabiting discrete enclaves on the north bank of the Ibar River. Almost all of the Serbs living on the south bank were displaced to North Mitrovica after the Kosovo War. In 2011, the city had an estimated total population of 71,601.
  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 United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (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 17 March 2004, the drowning of an 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 least 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 (in which 16 Serbs were killed).
  The local prison was the scene of an international incident on 18 April 2004 when Ahmed 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.
caption: Bridge over the Ibar, which divides the city in two. (2009)
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