Kosovo’s parliament speaker ejects ethnic Serb lawmakers because of their truancy

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This article was published 05/12/2024 (608 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo’s parliament speaker ejected several lawmakers of the ethnic Serb minority from the chamber Thursday because of several recent absences, a move that could spark new frictions in the tense relations with neighboring Serbia.

Speaker Glauk Konjufca accused the nine Srpska List party lawmakers of being provocative and misusing taxpayers’ money by showing up only “once every six months.”

Konjufca accused the lawmakers of working against Kosovo and reporting regularly to Milan Radoicic, a politician and wealthy businessman with ties to Serbia’s ruling populist party and President Aleksandar Vucic.

Radoicic was among 45 people charged in Kosovo in connection with a gunfight last year in which a Kosovar police officer was killed following an incursion by heavily armed Serb gunmen.

“Shame on you. The session is adjourned and I ask you to leave Republic of Kosovo’s Assembly,” Konjufca said.

The nine lawmakers then left the hall. The Srpska List party holds nine of the 10 seats that the Serb minority has in parliament.

Milan Kostic, one of the lawmakers, denounced the move, saying it showed “hatred toward the Serbian population” and calling on Western countries to react. “That is an attack on the entire Serbian population, not just on the Srpska List,” he said.

The parliament session resumed later on.

Tensions in Kosovo were heightened last week by a powerful explosion in a northern region populated mostly by ethnic Serbs. The blast temporarily cut water and power supplies to large swaths of the country.

Kosovo blamed the explosion on neighboring Serbia, which denied involvement.

Kosovo-Serbia relations remain tense despite efforts by the international community to normalize them.

Kosovo was a Serbian province until NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which left about 13,000 dead, mainly ethnic Albanians, and pushed Serbian forces out.

Kosovo in 2008 proclaimed independence, which is not recognized by Belgrade.

Brussels and Washington are urging both sides to implement agreements that Vucic and Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti reached in February and March last year. They include a commitment by Kosovo to establish an Association of the Serb-Majority Municipalities. Serbia is also expected to deliver on the de facto recognition of Kosovo, which Belgrade still considers its province.

The NATO-led international peacekeepers known as KFOR have increased their presence in Kosovo after last year’s tensions.

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Semini reported from Tirana, Albania.