North Mitrovica

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.

According to the northern-Kosovo based KoSSev website, Bahtiri is proposing that he should govern a "united (Kosovska Mitrovica."

"I demand that the Kosovo government take all the necessary legal actions to immediately abolish the decision to divide Mitrovica into two municipalities," Bahtiri wrote on his Facebook profile.

Protesters rallied on Tuesday in the north of the divided town of Mitrovica, carrying placards with messages like "EU open your eyes", "All we are saying is give peace a chance", "They are beating and terrorising us", "We want peace - not new wars" and "Don't shut us in a ghetto".

The Serb mayor of North Mitrovica, Goran Rakic, told an extraordinary session of the local assembly in the northern Kosovo town on Tuesday that he is resigning because of Pristina's decision to increase import tariffs on Serbian goods and because of violations of the human rights of Serbs living in Kosovo. 

Security expert Zoran Dragisic commented on events in Kosovo and Metohija for Prva TV the same morning.

Chinese Ambassador Li Manchang responded to this on Friday on Belgrade by saying he will notify the president of China about this in the course of the day.

President Aleksandar Vucic has had extraordinary meetings with the army and police chiefs this morning.

Other security services, as well as commanders of special military and police units, also took part in these meetings.

Milan Radoicic,  a leading figure in northern Kosovo close to Serbia's ruling Progressive Party, has expanded his business operations in Serbia by becoming part-owner of a construction company with another Kosovo Serb, Zvonko Veselinovic.

The spokesperson of the Kosovo Security Force Ministry, Ibrahim Shala, confirmed on Sunday that an explosive device was found strapped to a tree on the property of a member of Kosovo Security Force, KSF, on Saturday evening in Serb-run North Mitrovica in northern Kosovo.

"Do we have any draft solutions in Brussels? We do not, we are not even close to it," President Aleksandar Vucic said in a speech before thousands of Serbs in the Serb-run northern half of the divided Kosovo town of Mitrovica.