Kosovo Minister: We Will Continue Opening Bridges

Kosovska Mitrovica bridge (BETA/SASA DJORDJEVIC)

The minister of foreign affairs and the diaspora of Kosovo, Donika Gervalla, announced on Sept. 4 that the Kosovo government would “continue to open bridges” which, in her words should be uniting people and cities.

While speaking about the announced opening of the bridge across the Ibar that divides the northern and southern parts of Kosovska Mitrovica, she said that this bridge should not remain “the old symbol of a divided city” from the time of Slobodan Milosevic.

“We will not stop doing the right thing because there is no interest on the other side of the border (in Serbia) for Kosovo to progress. What we do is not provocative for anyone, our existence as Kosovo, as a republic, is provocative to our northern neighbor. But we cannot disappear and we are here to stay,” Gervalla said during the Bled Forum in Slovenia, as conveyed by the portal gazetaexpress.com.

Commenting on the international representatives’ criticism of the Kosovo government’s actions in the north, which have been described as uncoordinated and harmful, Gervalla said that Kosovo’s relation with the allies “goes far beyond the daily affairs” of the government. “Kosovo is a success story of the West. Kosovo is a success story of the U.S. and Europe because we needed NATO to stop the genocide and bring freedom to our people. Therefore, our relation goes beyond what we do in some parts of the country,” Gervalla stated.