Recalling Kurti’s past instances of confronting police shields and hurling tear gas, the phrase „fascist militia“ has emerged as the Kosovan Prime Minister’s new label for the events of Monday.
Today marks the ninth day since Kosovo’s special police forces forcibly installed newly-elected Albanian mayors into the municipal buildings in Zvecan, Zubin Potok, and Leposavic, against the vehement objections of the Serbs.
In the latter of these places, Leposavic, the mayor has not left the building since Monday. The Serbs are protesting, while KFOR is securing the buildings. In Zvecan, troops have been deployed even throughout the town at the request of the Serbs.
In this location on Monday, the Serbs violently clashed with KFOR, with over 80 injuries reported among both the Serbs and the soldiers, including those of firearms.
His long-time close comrade in the former opposition Self-Determination, and now the Minister of the Interior says: The Kosovo Police, the Kosovo Information Agency and the Ministry of the Interior will not stop until every criminal is behind bars, both during the war, and after the war and recently
Despite strong pressures from the international community on the Kosovan Prime Minister to have the police evacuate the buildings and the mayors relocated to alternative locations, the Prime Minister is not backing down.
He won’t retreat before a „fascist militia“ and a „crowd of chauvinistic nationalists,“ as he has been stating for days. In the Assembly yesterday, he read out the full names of approximately 20 Serbs whom he claims are responsible for the unrest.
The Kosovo Ministry of Internal Affairs immediately afterwards announced it had compiled an account of the „fascist militia“ attacks in the North. These figures, they claim, are proof that the protests in the North are not civic, but criminal in nature.
While dealing with the consequences of elections boycotted by Serbs and a low voter turnout of just 3.5%, it’s interesting that just shortly before these elections, the term „gauleiter Albin Kurti“ was catapulted from Belgrade. Both terms contain motifs from Nazism.
In taking stock, there’s another long-term factor: the violent protests and actions of the Self-Determination movement, which they have been flaunting.
Tear gas, Molotov cocktails, stones, blocks, assaults on government institutions, including the government itself, the parliament and parliamentary hall, alternative halls, the police – both special units and regular ones, attacks on other property, individuals, overturning trucks with Serbian goods, burning and breaking vehicles, accusations of armed attacks, including against the media, and even an accusation of an alleged assassination attempt on the then Prime Minister Isa Mustafa – all of this has been part of what the opossition leader highlighted as the „defense of the Republic“ for years. Today he points out the same, but sitting in the Prime Minister’s chair.
In numerous interviews following the agreement on the Association of Serbian majority municipalities, the current Prime Minister, then an opposition activist under house arrest, spoke of their desire for the right to unite with Albania, as they are one nation.
They protested over a wide range of topics, all concerning what they perceived as betrayal of national interests or harmful actions:
Against the arrival of Serbian President Boris Tadic; against the presence or work of the international community and KFOR, believing it’s time for them to leave; against the acceptance of the Ahtisaari package when deciding on independence – to this day, their fight against it remains one of their goals; against the way the demarcation with Montenegro was executed; against agreements made with Belgrade, especially against the Association; against Aleksandar Jablanović when he, as a newly appointed minister, used a derrogative term for Albanians; against Serbian goods arriving in Kosovo; in general, against dialogue with Serbia…
He threw tear gas in the parliamentary hall, sometimes kicking an already thrown canister to spread it further, went up to police and KFOR’s shields, whistled in parliament and interrupted sessions, got in the faces of deputies, scuffled with the police, ignored police orders. He has been arrested multiple times.
He told the policemen to go to Mitrovica, today he and his close associate, the Minister of Internal Affairs, are already recognized as someone who did that.
He once led all these actions, standing at the forefront of his loyal and numerous activists. Today he is the Prime Minister, with his closest party associates now sitting in his cabinet.
In continuation, you can remind yourself of just some of the scenes, reports we randomly took from the Internet archives. Perhaps the largest part of them can be found on the Self-Determination page itself, often edited with music, which this movement takes pride in.
Preuzimanje i objavljivanje tekstova sa portala KoSSev nije dozvoljeno bez navođenja izvora. Hvala na poštovanju etike novinarske profesije.
