A supporter of the Kosovo opposition parties lies on the ground, during clashes with anti-riot police near the Kosovo’s parliament in Pristina.

Reuters/AFP
Pristina
Opposition lawmakers in Kosovo fired teargas and pepper spray in parliament yesterday and police clashed with rock-throwing protesters in a deepening political crisis over relations with former master Serbia.
Protesters threw rocks, bottles and petrol bombs at police and parliament in the capital, Pristina, rallying in support of opposition lawmakers who for a fourth time disrupted the work of the assembly with tear gas and, on this occasion, pepper spray.
Opposition MPs have been paralysing parliamentary sessions for weeks in a bid to thwart EU-brokered dialogue and agreements with Serbia, the country from which Kosovo broke away and declared independence in 2008.
Despite a heavy police presence in and around the parliament, tear gas was released yesterday for the fourth time in the chamber, while prominent opposition MP Albin Kurti fired pepper spray, said an AFP reporter at the scene.
Kurti, from the Self-Determination party and a leading figure in the ongoing protests, sprayed in the direction of ministers but was blocked by two rows of police.
“I pointed the pepper spray at the prime minister and the government because they created the ‘association’,” Kurti told Reuters in the assembly. “The police just happened to be in the wrong place.”
Outside parliament, meanwhile, clashes broke out between around 100 protesters and anti-riot police, who fired tear gas in retaliation to hurled bottles, stones and paint, an AFP photographer said.
Police said Molotov cocktails were used by protesters in the scuffles which injured six officers and one protester, while two demonstrators were arrested.
The disruption inside parliament forced MPs from the governing coalition to reconvene in another room to finish the session on next year’s budget but without the presence of opposition deputies.
“This is a criminal act of individuals against whom measures should be taken. They should be held accountable before the law,” Prime Minister Isa Mustafa told the reconvened MPs. “We will not allow a minority of 30 deputies to obstruct the work of the parliamentary majority.”
The protesters are especially opposed to plans to set up an association of Serb-run municipalities giving greater autonomy to Kosovo’s Serb minority, saying the initiative will deepen the ethnic divide and increase Serbia’s influence in Kosovo.
The agreement was reached during EU-brokered talks with Serbia, which aim to improve relations between the two sides that were at war in 1998-1999.
Belgrade refuses to recognise the independence of Kosovo, whose population is predominantly ethnic Albanian.
The opposition also rejects a border agreement made with neighbouring Montenegro in August, which it says led to a loss of territory.
“Our requests are clear. We have been opposing the parliament for almost two months now, and we will continue until they are fulfilled,” said Visar Ymeri, leader of the Self-Determination party.
Earlier this month, Kosovo’s constitutional court suspended the implementation of the controversial association of Serb-run municipalities, pending the court’s review, following failed attempts by parliamentary leaders to reach a compromise on the issue.
The move came a day after the UN cultural body Unesco rejected Kosovo as a member, in a vote hailed as a victory by Belgrade.
Kosovo broke away from Serbia in 1999, when Nato bombed for 11 weeks to stop the killing and expulsion of ethnic Albanians by Serbian forces trying to crush a guerrilla insurgency.
The territory of 1.8mn people declared independence in 2008 and has been recognised by more than 100 countries, including the major Western powers.
But the EU wants the two to regulate their relations as Balkan neighbours if either are to make progress towards eventual membership of the bloc.