The two sides of every story

By Lou van Roozendaal

The bed of our local hotel in Northern Mitrovica, the Serbian populated area of Kosovo, creaks when I get out. The morning has begun early, with breakfast at 8.30. Slowly people start to drip in for an omelet with bacon, bread, and yogurt (poor vegans). Along the street, where our UN bus is ready to take us to the first meeting, the flags of Serbia are displayed and the cars have Serbian number plates. Yesterday was our first day in Northern Mitrovica, all the stories are still salient in our minds when we enter the bus.

The first meeting commences in the building of the UN agencies (UNDP, UNPFA, UNICEF) in one of the Northern Mitrovica Serb majority municipalities. Three individual speakers introduce us to the different agencies, allowing us to articulate informed questions for the specific agencies as soon as we break up into smaller groups. The UNPFA and the UNDP were most interesting in regards to our project about women’s role in politics and peace-building. Whereas the UNDP seemingly had shifted focus to youth projects, the UNPFA had just started a project focusing on countering domestic violence through faith-based interventions. This meant that in collaboration with the Serbian Orthodox Church, the UNPFA promoted the message that the ill-treatment of women is against the teachings of the church.

After the first meeting, we were given some time to have lunch and walk around the famous peace bridge. This bridge is highly symbolic in the tensions between the North and South of Mitrovica, and all of Kosovo since it is a direct connection in the middle of the city between the Serb and Albanian areas. In the middle of the bridge, that is still blocked for any traffic except pedestrian, you can on one side see the Albanian flags, on the other side you see a large walking street with Serbian flags. The walking street on the northern, Serbian, side was specifically made to redirect traffic to ensure no-one could easily drive directly into the Serbian part, one would now first have to go to the left or right when exiting the bridge, thus being guided to more mixed neighborhoods.

After a quick lunch, we are all on the bus again to go to the University of Pristina, Northern Mitrovica. This university was originally founded in the 70s in Prishtina and was split into a Serbian (in Northern Mitrovica) and an Albanian university after the war. Nowadays there is no contact between the universities of Prishtina, and the Northern Mitrovica University of Pristina is not recognized by the Kosovan authorities. The university has a beautiful lecture hall where we got to see an introductory video and listen to a representative of the university. In his speech, he welcomed us to the university that, as he states, is located in Serbia. It is clear that the Serbian population does not recognize Kosovo’s independence and refers to Kosovo as part of Serbia. We break up into individual groups, allowing us to discuss more in-depth and sensitive topics. My project partner and I split up to allow for multiple interactions with the Serbian students. The conversations easily shift between topics of being a minority, the status of Kosovo, food, fear of Albanians, exams, work, Serbian authority, favorite series, and university exchanges to Moscow. 

The third and last meeting of the day is at the UNMIK regional headquarters of Mitrovica. In order to get there, we had to cross into the south of Mitrovica once again, slowly making our way home. After giving them our passports and getting visitor passes, we entered the third meeting of the day. Although everybody was tired the questions were no less sharp and direct.

On the way home, while trying to stay awake, we made a stopover at the Field of Blackbirds. This stoic looking tower in the middle of nowhere does not reveal much of its historical and present significance for the Serbian community. In the trees the blackbirds chirp as we pull up to the gate. The sight is important because it was the location of the 1389 Battle of Kosovo were the Serbians (together with others) fought against the Ottoman Empire and lost, which is glorified in Serbian culture. It is also (in)famous for a second reason, namely due to the speeches by Milosevic in the 1980s, that started the rise of nationalistic sentiments among the Serbian population. Nowadays the sight is abandoned with as its only presence, the sole guard, KFOR blockades and an impressive (excessive) amount of cameras.

The meetings with the UN agencies, University of Pristina, and UNMIK as well as the visit to the sights of the Peace Bridge and the Field of Blackbirds had an exhausting effect on the group. Back in Prishtina, we take the time to pass by our guest homes before dinner to gather our thoughts. The dinner at Soma, a beautiful book-cafe, lightened the heaviness of the day. The trip to Northern Mitrovica has completed the narratives of Kosovars. Whereas the first half of the week the meetings were almost solely with Albanians, we had now heard the other side of the story. It once again raises questions of right and wrong, neutral or biased, who is the victim and who is the perpetrator, and do we even need to decide or have we done so already internally?