Brawl Breaks Out In Kosovo Parliament As Ethnic Tensions Rise

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

PRISTINA/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Fighting broke out in Kosovo’s parliament Thursday after an opposition legislator threw water at Prime Minister Albin Kurti while he explained government plans to end tensions with minority Serbs in the country’s north.

A video seen by Worthy News showed a man carrying a small bottle of water toward Kuti and then throwing its content at the prime minister.

A legislator came forward after Kurti’s deputy Besnik Beslimi ripped up a picture of the prime minister with a fictional Pinocchio-style long nose. The opposition had placed the image on the front of the podium where Kurti was speaking.

Within seconds more than a dozen politicians stormed towards the prime minister, pushing and punching each other, with the chair asking for police assistance to help end the clashes.

It was unclear whether there were any severe injuries in the fighting, revealing that men pushed some women.

Kurti was reportedly escorted out of the assembly hall during the chaos.

The fighting underscored tensions in the volatile Balkan nation where representatives of the United States and European Union have pressured Kurti to help calm tensions with ethnic Serbs.

ETHNIC ALBANIAN MAYORS

Violence broke out in May after police-backed mayors of Kosovo’s Albanian majority took office following an election that the ethnic Serb majority in the area had widely boycotted.

Dozens of people were injured in clashes between local Serbs and Kosovo police backed by NATO-led peacekeepers. Among those injured were also NATO troops, adding to fears of a conflict similar to the one in 1998-99 that killed over 10,000 people.

On Wednesday, Kurti pledged to reduce the number of special police officers stationed outside four municipal buildings in ethnic Serb-majority areas in northern Kosovo and hold new mayoral elections in each town.

Washington and Brussels had urged him to keep the mayors in different locations away from the north until the situation was resolved to avoid more bloodshed.

Yet, Kurti’s decision to finally reduce the number of security forces and hold new elections angered the opposition. They claim Kurti “experimented” and jeopardized Kosovo’s international position, only to back down later.

Kurti countered that he wanted to restore law and order in northern Kosovo by deploying police and new ethnic Albanian mayors.

Serbs in northern Kosovo have mostly refused to recognize the country’s independence from Serbia. Kosovo is the second youngest country in the world, behind South Sudan, which declared independence in 2011.

UN TRANSITIONAL RULE

Following nearly a decade under transitional United Nations administration backed by tens of thousands of NATO peacekeeping troops, Kosovo declared independence in February 2008

Serbia, supported by some allies, including Russia, still views Kosovo as Serbian territory.

Kosovo’s statehood was recognized by over 100 U.N. member states, including the United States and 22 EU countries, but not Serbia, its significant power ally Russia, or China.

Serbia has vowed never to recognize Kosovo’s independence. It backs nationalist minority Serbs in north Kosovo boycotting the state, creating a de facto partition.

Half of the local Serbs, or around 50,000, live in other parts of Kosovo, a mainly Muslim nation of nearly two million people.

Serbs, who are mainly Orthodox, have in recent years complained of attacks against their churches and monasteries though NATO peacekeepers tried to ease tensions.

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