Kosovo Mayor Seeks Divided Town's Re-Unification

The mayor of the southern half of the divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica, Agim Bahtiri, has called an urgent meeting of the local assembly to amend the law on reunifying the city, following the resignation of his Serbian counterpart in the north of town.

Four mayors of Serb-majority northern municipalities in Kosovo resigned on Tuesday after the Kosovo government imposed a 100-per-cent tax on Serbian imports.

Kosovo Serbs staged protests over this for two days in North Mitrovica, and over arrests made by Kosovo police in connection with the earlier murder of a Kosovo Serb politician.

The note sent by the municipal assembly, which BIRN has seen, says the first item on Friday's agenda is "an amendment of Law No 03 / L-041 on the administrative borders of the municipalities, aiming to unite Mitrovica".

However, the procedure for amending the law, about which Bahtiri has called the extraordinary session, is in fact determined by another law, the Law on Legislative Initiatives.

This lays down who can take such initiatives, explaining that neither municipalities nor mayors have that authority.

Kosovo's Ministry of Local Government Adiministration told BIRN that those entitled to call for such changes are the President, the Government, at least six MPs or 10,000 citizens.

Article 9 of the law on the Administrative Municipal Boundaries, clarifies that "the establishment of new municipalities, mergers, separations, alterations to administrative municipal boundaries and delineation of the name or residency of the municipality, shall be effected through a revision or amendment of this Law".

"Administrative boundaries of municipalities may not be altered prior to consultation with citizens of municipalities or parts of...