Three lawmakers arrested in Kosovo in tear gas protest
Kerry to back Kosovo reforms on first Balkan trip
PRISTINA: Three opposition lawmakers were arrested in Kosovo yesterday amid chaotic scenes in parliament, filled once more with tear gas in a fresh protest against an accord with former master Serbia.
Opposition MPs have been disrupting the work of parliament for two months by releasing tear gas in the chamber each time it tries to sit. They are demanding the government revoke a deal, brokered by the European Union, to grant minority Serbs greater local powers and the possibility of funding from Belgrade. They also oppose a border demarcation deal with Montenegro.
Opposition supporters have rioted several times on the streets of the capital, Pristina, heightening the sense of a young country in crisis almost eight years since it declared independence from Serbia.
US Secretary of State John Kerry is due to visit Kosovo tomorrow in a gesture of support for its development as an independent state, 16 years after a US-led NATO air war to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces.
Yesterday, opposition lawmakers twice released tear gas in the chamber. Police rushed out Prime Minister Isa Mustafa and other ministers. Local media and opposition parties said the parliament’s presidency had suspended all opposition MPs from yesterday’s session, which continued later in the day without them.
“We will protest inside the parliament and outside in the streets,” Glauk Konjufca of the opposition Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party told Reuters. “One of the options is also early elections; let them verify whether the Kosovo people support them”.
On Friday, masked police armed with rifles arrested Vetevendosje’s founder, lawmaker Albin Kurti, on charges of releasing tear gas in parliament. So far five MPs have been detained and arrest warrants have been issued for two more.
Kerry visit
John Kerry, on his first trip to the Balkans as US secretary of state, visits Kosovo to underscore Western concern over the slow pace of progress 16 years after a US-led air war set it on the road to independence. Kosovo faces a deepening political crisis over relations with former master Serbia, against a backdrop of widespread frustration over a lack of progress on democracy, corruption and Western integration.
The country of 1.8 million people, the majority ethnic Albanians, broke away from Serbia in 1999 when the United States led an 11-week NATO bombing campaign to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians by Serbian security forces fighting a two-year counter-insurgency war.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008. The mainly Muslim but overwhelmingly secular country remains staunchly pro-American, but there are concerns in the West over the risk of radicalization among disaffected and jobless young Kosovars. At least 200 of them are believed to have joined Islamist militants in Syria and Iraq.
Kerry’s brief visit, a senior US official told Reuters, aims “to show support for (the) process of democratic state building, strengthening rule of law, and the Kosovo-Serb normalization talks.”
Those talks mediated by the European Union aim to improve relations between Serbia and Kosovo. Serbia does not recognize its former southern province as sovereign, complicating its path to full international recognition. Serbia’s big-power ally Russia and five of the EU’s 28 members also oppose full recognition for Kosovo. For weeks, Kosovo has been rocked by riots and repeated scenes of opposition lawmakers releasing tear gas in parliament.
Huge frustration
The official said Kerry would also raise the issue of Kosovars leaving to fight in Syria before he heads north to Belgrade for a gathering of the 57-nation Organization for Cooperation and Security in Europe (OSCE) almost certain to be dominated by the war in Syria and the threat of Islamic State.
Having flown close to one million miles in nearly three years as secretary of state, that Kerry is only now getting to the Balkans is seen in some ways as a sign of success in a region that just two decades ago was at war. Analysts, however, say there is growing disenchantment across the region, notably in Kosovo. Many Kosovars are growing frustrated with the slow pace of progress towards European integration and the freedom of movement, jobs and prosperity they hope this will bring.
“You have this huge frustration growing in Kosovo as it becomes clear that the promises and hopes associated with independence are not being fulfilled,” said Gerald Knaus, chairman of the European Stability Initiative think tank. Ardian Arifaj, an adviser to Kosovo Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci, said Kerry’s visit would provide a “push for domestic politics to continue our work” and showed “we are clearly on the right track.”
The United States continues to commend great support among Kosovars. “If the Americans were not helping us in 1999, today I would be in a grave ... or in a foreign country,” said teacher Ymer
Sylejmani, 64. “But sometimes they (make) mistakes because they are supporting some thieves here - our politicians.”