Jablanovic says he has not resigned as Kosovo minister

PRISTINA - Aleksandar Jablanovic, Kosovo's minister for communities and return, has said that he did not resign, and described Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa's decision to exclude him from the coalition government as deeply disappointing.

"The protests held by the Self-Determination Movement were not so much directed against me as against Serbs and their participation in the government," Jablanovic told Tanjug.

Jablanovic is leader of the Srpska list, which will decide on further steps concerning the coalition government in the coming days, after consultations with Serbian Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic and "other relevant actors", as he put it.

Asked about further political plans, Jablanovic said that he has yet to receive a notification in writing about Prime Minister Mustafa's decision, adding that the plans will be known in the following days.

Kosovo Prime Minister Isa Mustafa has said that Aleksandar Jablanovic, leader of the Serb List in Kosovo, who has served as Kosovo minister of returns and communities, is no longer a minister in the province's coalition government.

Mustafa did not specify, at a press conference on Tuesday, if Jablanovic resigned or was dismissed.

The reason for such a decision could be a statement Jablanovic made on Serbian Orthodox Christmas Eve (January 6), when he called participants in a protest on that day who prevented a number of displaced Serbs from Djakovica from visiting the church in that western Kosovo city, throwing stones at a bus they travelled in and causing even minor injuries to the driver.

Jablanovic's statement caused much ill will and resentment among ethnic Albanians in Kosovo and was the occasion for about a dozen protests, including the last...