Vetëvendosje

Kosovo's opposition on Wednesday held up ratification of a border agreement with Montenegro, which they regard as a sell-out, releasing tear gas at a parliamentary session called to push the deal through, according to Reuters. 

The Kosovo Assembly is set to vote on the controversial agreement on border demarcation with Montenegro on Tuesday at 4pm, but a few hours before the deal is sent to MPs, it remains unclear if the ruling coalition can ensure it has 80 votes to ratify it.

The group of MPs who defected from the opposition Vetevendosje movement recently to form their own group in parliament have pledged to focus on pressing social issues that affect Kosovo.

A Kosovo parliamentary debate on the death of Astrit Dehari, an activist from the Vetevendosje party, was interrupted when a minister from the ruling party said the issue was being "instrumentalised" in the interest of "pro-Russian circles".

Pristina's mayor Shpend Ahmeti resigned from the main Kosovo opposition party, Vetevendosje, late on Wednesday, several months after he won his second mandate as its mayoral candidate - highighting serious internal problems within the party.

The opposition Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK and Vetevendosje parties in Kosovo have gathered 40 MPs' signatures demanding an extraordinary parliamentary session to discuss the Kosovo Accredition Agency's exclusion from the European Quality Assurance Register, EQAR, following the dismissal of its board.

The Appeals Court in Pristina on Monday ordered the release of three opposition Vetevendosje party activists, including an MP, who were convicted of throwing a grenade at the parliament building in 2016 and given substantial jail terms.

The court overturned the original verdicts and returned the case to the Basic Court of Pristina for retrial.

Kosovo MPs have again postoned a decision on whether or not to ratify a vexed border demarcation agreement with Montenegro, set for Thursday.

The vote failed as a result of the decision of the government to turn the vote into a package, by including two additional documents.

A decision to change the flag waving from a tall pole at  at the entrance to Pristina, at the place known as "the roundabout", has divided the public in Kosovo.

Up until Tuesday, the red and black Albanian national flag waved from the pole - but Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj then gave an order to replace it with Kosovo's own flag.

Drita Hajdari told a debate in Pristina on Wednesday evening that Kosovo is obliged to back the new Specialist Chambers, set up in The Hague to prosecute former Kosovo Liberation Army fighters for wartime and post-war crimes.

"The issue of war crimes cannot be an isolated issue for Kosovo alone," Pristina-based prosecutor Hajdari said.