A graceful bridge spans the Ibar river that divides the Kosovo town of Mitrovica near the Serbian border, where ethnic Serbs and Albanians have lived for centuries. But its walkways, cycle paths and car lanes are empty; concrete slabs and international peacekeepers block most traffic.
The town has been segregated since a bloody war in 1999, which ended in a Nato bombing of Belgrade as thousands of Albanians were killed or chased from their homes by Serb paramilitaries, and even today few locals venture across the bridge between their communities. The ethnic Serbs live on the north side of the river, the Albanians on the south.
Kosovo’s Albanian majority declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move recognised by almost 100 nations but rejected by Belgrade and local Serbs, thousands of whom still use Serbian ID cards and drive cars with Serbian licence plates.