15 October 2015•Update: 20 October 2015
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina
Tear-gas has again been thrown in Kosovo’s parliament chamber as a four-week standoff with opposition MPs continues.
MPs managed to bypass new security controls to throw the tear-gas just three minutes from the start of a session on Thursday in protest at EU-brokered agreements between Kosovo and Serbia.
No injuries were reported but business was suspended. Police have yet to confirm the identity of the person who threw the device.
The opposition announced it would continue blocking the work of parliament until the Brussels agreements with Serbia and a deal on the demarcation of the border with Montenegro are axed.
This is the second such incident in Kosovo’s parliament.
On Monday demonstrators also clashed with police on the streets of the capital Pristina after the detention of opposition party leader Albin Kurti.
Kurti was released by police a few hours after his detention.
On Sept. 22 opposition MPs pelted Prime Minister Isa Mustafa with eggs as he insisted that agreements with Serbia were in full compliance with Kosovo’s constitution.
In August, Serbia and Kosovo signed four agreements on the establishment of an association of Serb-majority municipalities.
This decision, in predominantly Albanian Kosovo, has been strongly denounced by opposition political parties.
They argue that this will lead to what they call the ‘Bosniazation’ of Kosovo, and thus create a dysfunctional country.
The Movement for Self-determination, the biggest opposition party in Kosovo, referring to official data, said this bloc of Serb councils will have about 30 percent of Kosovo’s territory, while serving only 74,000 people -- less than five percent of the population.
The party said this association would be a “state within the state”.
Kosovo is a former Serbian province populated by nearly 1.8 million people, over 90 percent of whom are Kosovo Albanians.
It declared independence on Feb. 17, 2008 and is recognized by over 100 countries, including the U.S., the U.K, France, Germany and Turkey.
Serbia, Russia and China are among countries that have not yet recognized the Kosovo’s independence.
