Kosovo minister's sacking urged over "sexist, racist remark" (Tanjug, BIRN, B92)
The Pristina-based Council for Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms (CDHRF) has called for Kosovo Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli to be sacked.
CDHRF requested the dismissal because Pacolli used "sexist and racist" language when he spoke before Kosovo Assembly's foreign affairs committee to describe "the way Serbia lobbied against Kosovo's membership in Interpol."
According to this, Pacolli said on Wednesday that Serbia hired a number of "well-dressed women" who, during the session of the Interpol General Assembly in Dubai, hugged "black" representatives of Interpol member states to lobby against Kosovo's membership in that international police organization.
Tanjug reported this on Monday, citing BIRN.
"They had about 10 well-dressed women and each of them went to the table of some black man and said, 'Excuse me, how are you?,' hugged them, and left an envelope," the Kosovo minister said.
The CDHRF referred to Pacolli's statement as "offensive and racist" and added that such vocabulary makes him "inadequate to perform the function of the minister of foreign affairs or represent Kosovo in any capacity."
Pacolli was attempting to justify the failure to make Kosovo a member of Interpol with Serbia's lobbying against Kosovo.
"We saw what type of lobbying they were doing in the hallway," he said.
At the General Assembly of the Interpol on November 20 in Dubai, Kosovo - despite the strong lobbying and support of Western countries, primarily the United States - did not manage to get votes to become a member of that global police organization.