Kosovo lawmakers reject holding Serb referendum in Kosovo

PRISTINA, Kosovo — Lawmakers successful Kosovo held an bonzer league Saturday to walk a solution saying that opening polling stations for Kosovo’s taste Serb number to ballot successful a Serb referendum would interruption the country’s constitution, laws and planetary practice.

The solution successful the parliament, which passed unanimously by the 76 lawmakers present, asked the authorities “to undertake each the actions ... not to let the usurpation of the Republic of Kosovo’s sovereignty and law bid from holding of a referendum of a overseas state successful the Republic of Kosovo’s territory.” The taste Serb minority’s Serb Lists enactment had near the assembly hallway earlier Saturday’s vote.

Serbia is holding a referendum connected Sunday connected amendments to boost the independency of its judiciary arsenic portion of reforms needed for the state to determination person to its extremity of rank successful the 27-nation European Union. Belgrade wants its taste Serb number successful Kosovo to participate.

But Kosovo authorities accidental taste Serbs successful its territory whitethorn formed ballots lone via message oregon astatine a liaison office, ignoring past practices of mounting up voting stations successful Serb-dominated areas.

The solution said Serbia is trying to exploit taste Serbs surviving successful Kosovo “to service its hostile argumentation against the Republic of Kosovo.”

Kosovo constabulary said Saturday that they had blocked astatine the borderline documents that Serbia had sent to alteration Kosovo’s taste Serb number to instrumentality portion successful the referendum. A constabulary connection said 1 car and 2 trucks were stopped Friday astatine the Merdare borderline crossing point. The trucks were confiscated portion six radical successful the vehicles were turned back.

A connection Friday from Kosovo’s apical authorities said Kosovo laws “do not admit the close of 1 authorities to clasp a referendum successful the sovereign territory of different state,” adding that “the practices applied truthful acold since 2012 person been unconstitutional.”

The determination is apt further strain relations betwixt Kosovo and Serbia. Kosovo declared independency from Serbia successful 2008, a determination that Belgrade has refused to recognize.

Serbia has insisted that Kosovo remains portion of the country, contempt its declaration of independency pursuing a 1998-99 struggle that killed immoderate 13,000 radical and ended aft NATO bombed Serbia to halt its crackdown connected separatist taste Albanians.

Serbia has maintained a beardown power successful the Serb-dominated areas of Kosovo wherever tens of thousands of Serbs live, though it formally has nary authorization there.

The quality betwixt Serbia and Kosovo remains a origin of tensions successful the Balkans. EU-mediated negotiations aimed astatine normalizing relations betwixt the 2 person produced small progress, though some Kosovo and Serbia person been told to resoluteness their differences successful bid to determination guardant successful their bids to articulation the EU.

Semini reported from Tirana, Albania.