Deputy Kosovo PM and ruling LDK party leader Hashim Thaci was pelted with bottles on Monday as he was walking from the assembly to the government building.
Thaci was attacked by former members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), who were also chanting, “thief, thief.” They were protesting for not being included in a list of KLA “veterans.”
Also on Monday, the Kosovo assembly was discussing adopting a constitutional amendment that would allow for a special court to be set up to deal with war crimes committed by the KLA.
The debate took place “in an almost empty hall, after PM Isa Mustafa and then Thaci left,” according to reports.
Most LDP members of the assembly also left the sitting, while the Pristina-based Albanian language daily Gazeta Blic said on its website that Thaci was “persistently insisting” that deputies from his party vote in favor of the amendment.
The website claims that the proposed legislation will have the necessary 80 votes, but that “Thaci fears going to the vote with such a slim majority, and therefore continues to pressure the deputies to convince them to vote ‘yes’.”
The Kosovapress agency said that Mustafa left parliament “in order to prepare a draft law on the formation of the special court” that should be submitted during the day – and another draft, on legal protection and financial support for those who will be prosecuted by the court.
The opposition continues to stand against the constitutional amendments, with the main argument heard today being that it is “unconstitutional to vote again on the amendments that parliament rejected on June 29.”
