Albania’s ruling Socialist Party and the opposition Democratic Party reached a rare agreement in parliament on Thursday over a resolution condemning the terrorist attack in north Serbia, carried out on 24 September.
The EU-dubbed terrorist attack saw ethnic Serbs kill one Kosovo police officer and barricade themselves in a monastery before engaging in a shootout with authorities. At least three attackers were killed, which led Serbia to declare three days of mourning.
Following the attack, significant amounts of weapons and ammunition were found, including some that had passed through Serbian state maintenance centres multiple times, including last year.
The responsibility for organising the attack was taken by Radoicic, who resigned from the post of vice president of Serb List, the main party of Serbs in Kosovo that has the support of official Belgrade.
The resolution has just three points, which include the Assembly of Albania declaring its support for the resolution approved on September 28 in the Assembly of Kosovo, asking the institutions to engage with international partners for an investigation into the terrorist act, and encouraging the government of Kosovo to cooperate with allies for the normalisation of relations with Serbia.
After several hours of debate, in which the opposition accused the government and Prime Minister Edi Rama of not taking the right stance over the terrorist attack, 101 deputies voted in favour, none against and one abstained.
The abstention vote belonged to the deputy of the DP, Kreshnik Çollaku, as the amendments he proposed were not put to the vote at all.
Opposition MP Jorida Tabaku called the resolution’s content lukewarm and without courage.
“The Parliament of Albania should be silent about Kosovo; how can it hide behind the resolution of Kosovo? Criminal act of a Serbian terrorist unit, say in the preamble. That’s it? This is what Vucic also says. As much as the Serbian opposition, we do not dare to say that Vucic is responsible,” said Tabaku.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Igli Hasani, said that: “Kosovo has been and remains at the centre of Albanian diplomatic activity” and added that next week, a meeting dedicated to the impunity of crimes during the conflict in Kosovo will be organised in the Security Council.
Former Prime Minister Sali Berisha supported the resolution but accused Rama of protecting Serbia’s interests and “blocking any kind of effort that could be made for any positive step towards the climate between Serbia and Kosovo”.
(Alice Taylor | Euractiv.com)
Read more with EURACTIV
Czechia behind push to delay combustion engine phase out
Source: euractiv.com
