Excavators demolishing the wall in North Mitrovica. Photo: BIRN.

The demolition of the contested two-metre-high concrete wall near the bridge across the Ibar River in North Mitrovica took place on Sunday without incident, although police were in attendance to ensure order.

An agreement to remove the wall was reached at lengthy meeting between local Kosovo Serb leaders and Pristina officials on Saturday which was intended to defuse the tensions caused by the dispute over the construction.

It was signed by the mayor of North Mitrovica, Goran Rakic, and Kosovo’s environment minister, Ferat Shala, and witnessed by Prime Minister, Isa Mustafa, his deputy, the US ambassador and the EU special representative in Kosovo.

The agreement “will ease tensions in the north of Kosovo, assist the freedom of movement and create an ambiance that will benefit all citizens in North and South Mitrovica”, the EU mission said in a statement.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci also welcomed the deal.

“The agreement between central and local institutions in Kosovo to demolish the wall in North Mitrovica is proof that any problem can be resolved through inter-institutional dialogue when there is a willingness to find solutions,” Thaci wrote on Facebook afterwards.

Parliamentary chairman Kadri Veseli wrote on Facebook that there would be “no dividing walls in Kosovo”.

“Our institutions and the citizens of our independent state, the Republic of Kosovo, are determined to have communication and freedom of movement, in addition to economic development, a democratic spirit and the rule of law,” Veseli said.

Mayor Rakic said meanwhile that a new 1.2-metre-high wall will be built at a different location, local media reported.

Serbs in Mitrovica started building the wall in December near the bridge that ethnically divides the town’s Serb-dominated north and largely Albanian-populated south.

They insisted that it was a purely practical construction intended to act as a physical support for a riverside promenade, and would not block traffic crossing the bridge.

But the Kosovo authorities called for it to be demolished because it was not legally built, also arguing that it would act as a divide between Serbs and Albanians.

The resulting dispute caused the postponement of planned re-opening of the renovated bridge over the River Ibar, which was intended to ensure free movement between the north and south of the town.

The building of barriers on or near the Ibar River bridge is a highly sensitive issue in the ethnically-divided town.

For several years, a large barricade made of stone and sand that was manned by local Serbs – known as ‘bridge watchers’ – prevented the free flow of vehicles over the bridge, until it was removed in 2014.

The wall row came amid a series of other disputes between Kosovo and Serbia, which were not resolved by unfruitful talks between the two countries’ leaders in Brussels last week.

Serbian premier Aleksandar Vucic on Friday blamed Kosovo’s leaders for the sharp rise in tensions between Pristina and Belgrade and for the apparent failure of the talks.