Kosovo\u2019s Prime Minister Albin Kurti complained about the unfairness towards his state by the United States and the European Union, as well as the tolerance towards what he described as \u201cthe authoritarian regime of Serbia\u201d.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Associated Press, Kurti said that his government has taken a different stance.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe insist that good behavior towards an autocrat does not make them behave better. It\u2019s the opposite,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The US envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar, and the EU envoy for the Kosovo-Serbia dialogue Miroslav Laj\u010d\u00e1k, \u201ccome to us with requests from the other side\u201d, Kurti said.<\/p>\n
Escobar and Laj\u010d\u00e1k conducted a joint visit to Pristina and Belgrade this week to help the parties find a solution to reduce tensions in northern Kosovo.<\/p>\n
In Leposavi\u0107, Zve\u010dan, and Zubin Potok \u2013 municipalities in northern Kosovo with a Serbian majority \u2013 the security situation has worsened since May 26th<\/sup>, when Albanian mayors officially took office despite resistance from local residents.<\/p>\n Local Serbs in these three municipalities have been organizing protests in front of municipal buildings since then.<\/p>\n Violence escalated on May 29th<\/sup> when local Serbs clashed with members of the NATO mission in Kosovo, KFOR, and dozens of people from both sides were injured.<\/p>\n The April 23rd<\/sup> elections, which brought these Albanian mayors to power, were boycotted by the Serbian community.<\/p>\n The US and the EU have presented three requests to Kosovo: calming the situation in the north, holding new elections in the four northern municipalities, and resuming the dialogue for the normalization of relations between Kosovo and Serbia.<\/p>\n Kurti insisted that the presence of special units of the Kosovo Police in the three municipalities in the north would not be reduced unless the \u201cSerbian criminal gangs\u201d either leave or are arrested. He said that there would be peace in Kosovo if there were \u201cno orders for violence coming from Belgrade\u201d.<\/p>\n According to him, Western powers should not \u201cspoil\u201d Belgrade, which he considers the main problem of violence in the Western Balkans.<\/p>\n Kurti complained that even for the April elections in the four municipalities in northern Kosovo with a Serbian majority, \u201cinternational intermediaries, European intermediaries failed\u201d to help Kosovo.<\/p>\n He said that they demanded electoral changes from Kosovo but did not pressure Serbs to participate in the elections.<\/p>\n The Kosovar Prime Minister said that now there is a need for international community assistance to promote political pluralism in the Serbian-populated north and to have \u201cfair, democratic elections for new mayors\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cWe cannot have a process in which Serbian candidates boycott the elections a few days before their holding, because that\u2019s what Belgrade orders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Kosovo\u2019s President Vjosa Osmani has also stated that new elections in the four northern municipalities can be held.<\/p>\n According to her, the declaration of new local elections can be made if 20% of the voters sign a petition with this request.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kosovo\u2019s Prime Minister Albin Kurti complained about the unfairness towards his state by the United States and the European Union, as well as the tolerance towards what he described as \u201cthe authoritarian regime of Serbia\u201d. In an interview with the Associated Press, Kurti said that his government has taken a different stance. \u201cWe insist that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":54691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163],"tags":[995,429,308,1098,150,243,151,383,428,2203,301,1250],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n