Kosovo MPs Back Operation In North

By

By Shengjyl Osmani

Kosovo’s parliament met in an extraordinary session on Thursday to overwhelmingly back a resolution calling for the enforcement of law and order in the Serb-run north of the country.

The resolution was ratified with 89 votes for and eight against.

The resolution read: “The Assembly applies the constitutional right of Kosovo’s institutions to enforce complete control over the entire territory [of the country]. The Assembly supports the government in enforcing law and order. The Assembly asks the government to use all legal and constitutional means to protect the entire territory.”

Kosovo
Kosovo

“The Assembly invites the international community to support local institutions in enforcing law and order in the entire territory,” it continued. “The Assembly urges citizens to respect the government’s decisions and calls on them to constantly preserve peace and constitutional order.”

On behalf of the biggest opposition party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, Ismet Beqiri described the actions of the so-called parallel Serbian structures in the north – those responsible to Belgrade – as criminal acts.

Glauk Konjufca, for the nationalist opposition Vetvendosja movement, said they had been calling for the special police to intervene in the north since 2008. According to him, the government then called this proposal an incitement to violence.

Konjufa urged the government to restore control over the northern customs points. He further urged President Atifete Jahjaga to declare a state of emergency, scrap the current EU-moderated dialogue with Serbia and strengthen cooperation with Albania, the US, those EU countries that have recognized Kosovo and Turkey in enforcing order in the north.

Meanwhile, Serbia has asked for an urgent session of the UN Security Council on the situation in Kosovo. The session is scheduled for later today in New York.

The crisis in the north started on Monday night, when Kosovo special police took over two checkpoints in the Serb-held north in a move to enforce a recent order from Pristina, banning the import of goods from Serbia. They soon encountered stiff resistance from local Serbs, culminating in the torching of one of the borders crossing last night.

Northern Kosovo was calm on this morning, after KFOR deployed more forces at the two border checkpoints at Jarinje and Brnjak.

Balkan Insight

The Balkan Insight (formerly the Balkin Investigative Reporting Network, BIRN) is a close group of editors and trainers that enables journalists in the region to produce in-depth analytical and investigative journalism on complex political, economic and social themes. BIRN emerged from the Balkan programme of the Institute for War & Peace Reporting, IWPR, in 2005. The original IWPR Balkans team was mandated to localise that programme and make it sustainable, in light of changing realities in the region and the maturity of the IWPR intervention. Since then, its work in publishing, media training and public debate activities has become synonymous with quality, reliability and impartiality. A fully-independent and local network, it is now developing as an efficient and self-sustainable regional institution to enhance the capacity for journalism that pushes for public debate on European-oriented political and economic reform.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *