Kosovo celebrates 15 years of independence in hopes of reaching an agreement with Serbia – #Kosovo #celebrates #years #independence #hopes #reaching #agreement #Serbia
PRISTINA, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Thousands celebrated 15 years of Kosovo’s independence in Pristina on Friday soldier and greeted with a police cheering parade. 1990s.
Crowds waving Kosovo and Albanian flags on the main street of the capital the police and the military lined up as they passed, but in the north of the country, where the minority Serbs have long resisted Pristina’s rule, no holiday there was no event.
Prime Minister of Kosovo Albin Kurti said before the parade: “Our independence was achieved by struggle and sacrifice, but our independence will only grow with hard work.”
Tensions with Serbia continue as Belgrade continues to support the country’s refusal to recognize the country’s independence, nearly a decade after the 50,000 minority Serbs in northern Kosovo rebelled against repressive Serbian rule.
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To end Belgrade’s brutal security crackdown NATOSerbia, whose army was withdrawn from the ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo as a result of the bombings, still considers the former southern province an integral part of its territory.
USA and Europe EU representatives are pressing countries to approve a peace plan presented by mid-2022, under which Belgrade will end Kosovo’s UN will stop lobbying against its participation in international organizations, including
EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Josep Borrell’s office said Kurti will meet Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Brussels on February 27 to discuss the 11-point plan.
Under it, Kosovo will commit to creating a semi-autonomous union of Serb-majority municipalities in the north, where nationalist Serbs have repeatedly clashed with police trying to enforce the Pristina government’s decision.
Although Belgrade and Pristina accepted the EU plan in principle, they said that additional negotiations are needed. A solution to their volatile conflict is a key condition for Serbia and Kosovo to move towards EU membership.
USA President Joe Biden “We welcome your support for the EU’s proposal for normalization with mutual recognition, which will help ensure a more peaceful and prosperous future for the peoples of both Kosovo and Serbia,” Vjosa Osmani said in a letter to his Kosovar counterpart on Thursday evening.
The 73-year-old was among the thousands of Kosovars who gathered on the streets of Pristina on February 17 for the anniversary of independence. Ali Reshani told Reuters: “Thank God we have our own police, we have our own army. I am waiting for better days.”
He added: “I hope God will give good things to the Americans for helping us.”
In the Serb-majority town of North Mitrovica in northern Kosovo, the anniversary was ignored.
Lazar Kostic, 58, a local Serbian taxi driver, said he had ethnic Albanian friends but only kept in touch by phone. “(Kosovo) means nothing to me personally. It is not a state and it will never be for me,” he told Reuters.
“We don’t care who you are or what your name is,” he said, referring to the former federal, multi-ethnic Yugoslavia, which was torn apart by ethnic wars in the 1990s.flour we grew up in times when it was not important. Those were happy times. But when politics got involved in our life, it was a different story.”
Additional reporting by Branko Filipovic in North Mitrovica; Edited by Mark Heinrich
Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
2023-02-17 20:51:41
Source – reuters
Translation“24 HOURS”