Demonstrators throw stones and concrete at police after detention of Albin Kurti, who opposes EU-brokered deal to empower minority Serbs

Protesters and police have fought running battles in Kosovo after the arrest of a prominent opposition politician who opened a teargas canister in parliament as he campaigns to overturn a landmark deal with Serbia.



Clouds of teargas filled streets in central Pristina as police drove back several hundred protesters lobbing stones and concrete at the main police station to demand the release of Albin Kurti, a member of parliament and founder of the opposition’s Self-Determination party.

Several vehicles belonging to state authorities were burnt, a Reuters reporter said.

Kosovo politicians stage teargas protest in parliament Read more

Kurti was later released. His arrest followed an incident in parliament last week in which he opened a teargas canister, forcing the evacuation of MPs, in protest at a European Union-brokered deal to give more local powers to Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kosovo parliament sets off teargas in parliament.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008 with the backing of the west, almost a decade after Nato undertook 11 weeks of air strikes to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians by Serbian forces trying to crush a guerrilla insurgency. Independence has been recognised by more than 100 countries but not Serbia or Russia.

The EU sees the 2013 deal, still being implemented, as a way to cement stability in the former Yugoslavia, but Kurti – who was jailed by Serbia for agitating against Belgrade’s rule of majority-Albanian Kosovo during the 1990s – says it represents a threat to Kosovo’s hard-won sovereignty.

Serbia and Kosovo in cooperation deal Read more

As the violence subsided on Monday, Kurti appeared outside parliament to address supporters, accusing police of “being in the service of daily politics”.

“I call on you not to stop until we prevent the creation of the community,” he said, using the word “community” in reference to an association of ethnic Serb municipalities in Kosovo that will have greater control over local affairs.

Ninety per cent of Kosovo’s 1.8 million people are ethnic Albanians.

Kurti’s party, which he no longer formally leads, has been disrupting the work of parliament in protest at the accord. Last Thursday he calmly opened a teargas canister on the floor of the assembly, kicking it around and causing two deputies to faint.