Tear gas clouds Kosovo’s independence anniversary
PRISTINA: Eight years after ethnic Albanians joyously declared Kosovo’s independence from Serbia, chaotic scenes of MPs releasing tear gas in their parliament hardly give the impression of a successfully functioning state.
But Albin Kurti, an opposition deputy and ringleader of the recent dramatic protests, says such radical measures are the only way to save Kosovo.
“Perhaps people will be a bit shocked,” Kurti told AFP at his party office in the capital Pristina, after his release from a stint in jail and house arrest over his activities.
“But I think the majority of people will understand that there must be some terrible hardship for this country, there must be some great danger, if these MPs are forced to do such actions,” he said.
Since October, Kurti and his colleagues have nearly paralysed parliament with internationally-condemned tear gas protests, while riot police have fired the same gas at their sometimes violent supporters on the streets.
One of the main targets of the united opposition’s fury is a government deal with Serbia, brokered by the European Union, to create an association giving greater powers to Kosovo’s Serb minority.
Critics fear the plan will deepen Kosovo’s already entrenched ethnic divisions and increase the reach of former master Serbia, against whom Kosovo’s pro-independence ethnic Albanian rebels fought a war in the late 1990s.
But for many of the protesters, who are planning a pro-election rally for Kosovo’s day of independence on Wednesday, the deal is only a catalyst for action over a host of complaints against those in power.
“We are totally disappointed,” said 32-year-old IT designer Petrit Ramadani, recalling the euphoria of eight years ago.
“Kosovo is not what we dreamt it would be.”
He and several other protesters accused the authorities of widespread corruption, lagging development and a disregard for Muslim-majority Kosovo’s 1.8 million people, 70 per cent of whom are younger than 35.
Many of them appear keen to move abroad, faced with an unemployment rate that the World Bank puts at around 40 percent. — AFP