Vetëvendosje

Flora Brovina, an MP from the ruling Democratic Party of Kosovo, sparked angry reactions on Thursday when she showed a photograph to media which she said showed three Serbian soldiers raping an ethnic Albanian woman during the war.

Scheduled local elections in four northern mainly Serbian districts of Kosovo were thrown into crisis on Wednesday when the Central Election Commission, CEC, failed to certify candidates from the main Serbian party in Kosovo, Srpska Lista.

The candidates did not receive the necessary support from the CEC, meaning their candidacies have been rejected.

At a meeting of Kosovo's Central Election Commission on Tuesday, Vetevendosje refused to vote in favour of certifying candidates from the Srpska Lista party to run in the May 19 polls, arguing that three of them had breached the constitution by resigning as mayors of the same municipalities in which they want to run for office again.

Kadri Veseli at the commemoration. Photo: Kadri Veseli/Facebook.

Hundreds of relatives of victims gathered on Wednesday at a memorial to the 54 ethnic Albanian civilians killed by Serbian forces in the village of Poklek, 25 kilometres west of Pristina, to mark the 20th anniversary of the massacre.

At the trial of ten suspected members of 'People's Eye' on Friday, Hashim Thaci accused the leader of Kosovo's main opposition party Vetevendosje, Albin Kurti, and one of its MPs, Glauk Konjufca, of being behind the organisation.

The opposition Social Democratic Party, PSD, led by MPs who left the opposition Vetevendosje party in March, is getting closer to the ruling coalition, analysts say - driven by its criticism of the latter's approach to the EU-led talks with Serbia.

The parliamentary group of the biggest Kosovo opposition party, the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK on Tuesday demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj and his deputy, Fatmir Limaj, after a statement from European Commissioner Johannes Hahn that visa liberalisation with the EU is more likely to come by 2020 than the hoped-for end of 2018.

Thousands of people from across Kosovo descended on central Pristina on Saturday for a protest organised by the country's main opposition force, Vetevendosje, against President Thaci and his push in recent months for "border corrections" between Kosovo and Serbia.

The head of the Kosovo Liberation Army War Veterans' Organisation, Hysni Gucati, told Kosova Press news agency on Tuesday that former KLA guerrillas agree that the Albanian-majority Presevo Valley area of Serbia should become part of Kosovo, but that they oppose giving any land to Serbia in return.

A roundtable organised on Wednesday in Kosovo by BIRN Kosovo's show "Jeta ne Kosove" heard local politicians warn that a territorial swap between Serbia and Kosovo could worsen regional instability.