Serbia talks spark mass protests in Kosovo

Police fire teargas and arrest dozens of people during clashes with opposition activists angered by push to mend ties.

Police in Kosovo have fired teargas and arrested dozens of people during clashes with opposition activists demonstrating against a new push by the European Union to improve the country’s ties with Serbia.

Monday’s unrest followed a meeting last week in Brussels between Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and his Serbian counterpart, Ivica Dacic. It was the first meeting at such a level since majority-Albanian Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

The EU says the two must normalise relations and solve a range of practical problems arising from Serbia’s refusal to
recognise Kosovo if they are to make further progress toward joining the bloc.

But hardliners in Kosovo say they have nothing to discuss with Serbia, which was bombed by NATO in 1999 to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians by Serb forces under late leader Slobodan Milosevic during a two-year
counterinsurgency war.

‘Isolated voices’

Chanting “thieves” and “shame”, up to 200 activists of the opposition Self-determination Party tried to blockade Thaci’s office in protest at his meeting with Dacic, who was Milosevic’s wartime spokesperson. A banner read, “No bargain with Serbia!” 

“After all the crimes
in Kosovo, no one has taken responsibility or apologised

– Shpend Ahmeti,
Self-determination deputy leader

Police drove them back with pepper spray and teargas. Sixty people were arrested and 18 officers were injured when
protesters pelted them with stones, police said.

“This was a shameful meeting [in Brussels],” said self-determination deputy leader Shpend Ahmeti. “After all the crimes in Kosovo, no one has taken responsibility or apologised.”

The party said several activists were beaten by police and treated in hospital.

EU-mediated talks are expected to resume in November, focusing on a range of practical problems arising from the lack
of diplomatic relations, including energy supplies, a telephone country code for Kosovo and management of their joint border.

School astride the Kosovo divide [Al Jazeera]

The most contentious issue will be Kosovo’s north, a mainly Serb-populated region propped up by Belgrade in a de facto ethnic partition of the country.

Thaci called the protesters “isolated voices”.

“The voices of these individuals are always opposed to progress in Kosovo and they follow the same agenda as the opponents of Kosovo’s independence,” he told a cabinet meeting.

The EU, which made Serbia a candidate for membership in March, wants Belgrade to loosen its grip on Kosovo’s north, but the Serbs there refuse to have anything to do with Thaci’s government in Pristina and function largely as part of the Serbian state.

Kosovo has been recognised by more than 90 countries, including the US and 22 of the EU’s 27 members.
Serbia, backed by UN Security Council veto holder Russia, says it will never recognise the country of 1.7 million people as sovereign.

Source: News Agencies