Riots in Kosovo deepen crisis over Serbia accord

Riots erupted in Kosovo on Wednesday in a deepening crisis over relations with former ruler Serbia, with protesters setting fire to garbage containers and government vehicles in the capital Pristina. A hardcore of several hundred protesters fought running battles with police, who used tear gas and armored vehicles to try to disperse them. Almost eight years after Kosovo won its independence from Serbia, the European Union is trying to smooth relations between the Balkan neighbors, but many among Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian majority are opposed to concessions made to Belgrade.

The police were forced to intervene as the protesters were very violent.

Police spokesman Baki Kelani

An opposition bloc headed by prominent protest leader-turned politician Albin Kurti has repeatedly disrupted the work of parliament with tear gas and pepper spray, demanding that the government scrap an EU-brokered accord offering minority ethnic Serbs greater local powers and the possibility of some financing from Belgrade. The young country’s Constitutional Court is due to rule on the constitutionality of the accord, but on Wednesday the court was surrounded by police and bomb squad officers after a hand grenade was lobbed into its grounds.

They should either arrest us all or renounce the agreements… There will be no peace in Kosovo while they are not withdrawn.

Dardan Molliqaj, secretary general of the Self-Determination party