Opposition politicians released tear gas in Kosovos parliament for the second successive week to protest a European Union-brokered accord with Serbia. The video footage shows politicians fleeing after CS gas canisters were thrown into the room by opposition members on Thursday (15 October).
The opposition is angry over a deal to grant ethnic Serb areas of Kosovo greater local powers and the possibility of funding from Belgrade. It says the proposal represents a threat to the independence Kosovo declared from Serbia with Western backing in 2008. A bloc of opposition parties says it will disrupt the work of parliament until this deal, and another demarcation of Kosovos border with Montenegro, are rescinded.
On Moonday (12 October) police fought running battles with stone-throwing protesters demanding the release of a prominent opposition figure who had also set off tear gas in parliament days earlier. Albin Kurti was released by police hours after being detained.
Kosovo broke away from Serbia in 1999, aided by 11 weeks of Nato bombing to halt the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanian civilians by Serbian forces trying to crush a two-year guerrilla insurgency. After almost a decade as a ward of the United Nations, the majority-Albanian territory declared independence in 2008 and has been recognised by more than 100 countries. However, this does not include Serbia or its big-power ally Russia.
