Kosovo Arrests More MPs for Disrupting Parliament

Police in Kosovo have now detained more than a third of opposition MPs following Monday's unrest, when MPs again disrupted parliament by setting off tear gas on two separate occasions.

Three opposition parties have vowed to block the work of parliament until the Kosovo government of Isa Mustafa scraps Brussels-brokered agreements with Serbia and a border demarcation deal with Montenegro.

Police arrested Glauk Konjufca, chariman of the opposition Vetevendosje parliamentary group, as he walked out of parliament around midnight, after he told the media that he "personally threw the [tear] gas."

Police on Monday night also arrested five other MPs, Aida Derguti and Besa Baftiu of Vetevendosje, and Pal Lekaj, Teuta Haxhiu and Time Kadriaj, from the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, AAK.

Two other Vetevendosje MPs, Fisnik Ismaili and Faton Topalli, were meanwhile arrested for a second time for violating the terms of their house arrests when they showed up in parliament.

In parallel to the incidents in the assembly, opposition supporters clashed with riot police in the streets of Pristina, resulting in the arrest of three protesters, according to police.

A total of eight opposition MPs were arrested in Monday's incidents, bringing the total number of those under arrest to 13 out of 31 Vetevendosje, AAK and Nisma MPs. The assembly has 120 members in all.

Those arrested previously were Albin Kurti, Albulena Haxhiu and Ismajl Kurteshi of Vetevendosje, Donika Kadaj-Bujupi, from the AAK, and Haxhi Shala, from Nisma.

"The persecution of the opposition has reached a magnitude that cannot be tolerated any longer and the government has gone so far that a normal solution to the political crisis is hardly thinkable," Vetevendosje said...