Mitrovica during and after the Kosovo War

Both the town and municipality were badly affected by the 1999 Kosovo War. According to the 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 are stationed in the western sector with their headquarters in Kosovska Mitrovica. They were reinforced with a contingent of 1,200 troops from the United Arab Emirates, and a small number of Danish troops. In the aftermath of the war, the town became a symbol of Kosovo's ethnic divisions. The badly damaged southern half of the town was repopulated by an estimated 50,000 Albanians. Their numbers have since grown with the arrival of refugees from destroyed villages in the countryside. Most of the approximately 6,000 Roma fled to Serbia. In the north, some 8-10,000 Kosovo Serbs remained in their homes, with 2,000 Kosovo Albanians and 1,700 Muslim Slavs living in discrete enclaves on the north bank of the Ibar river. Almost all of the Serbs living on the south bank were displaced to the north. In 2003 the city had an estimated total population of 75,600 and the municipality's population is estimated to be some 105,000. 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 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 March 17, 2004, the drowning of one 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 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.