Kurt again attacks the emissaries: Serbia's requests are coming

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti complained of bias towards his state by the United States and the European Union and tolerance, so, as he described, Serbia's authoritarian regime.

In an interview with the Associated Press, Kurti said his government has taken a different stance.

We insist that good behavior towards an autocrat does not make him behave better. The opposite”, he said.

US envoy for the Western Balkans Gabriel Escobar, and the EU's for Kosovo-Serbia dialogue Miroslav Lajcak, “are visiting us with requests from the other side”, he said.

Escobar and Lajcak paid a three-day visit to Pristina and Belgrade this week to help the parties find a solution to lower tensions in northern Kosovo.

In Leposaviq, Zvecan and Zubin Potok municipality in northern Kosovo -- inhabited by Serb majority -- the security situation has deteriorated since May 26th, when Albanian mayors of municipalities have officially taken office, despite the resistance of local residents.

Local Serbs in these three municipalities have since staged protests in front of municipal buildings.

Violence culminated on May 29th, when local Serbs clashed with NATO mission members in Kosovo, KFOR, and dozens of people on both sides were injured in the clashes.

The April 23rd elections, out of which these Albanian leaders have emerged, have been boycotted by the Serb community.

The US and the EU have submitted three requests to Kosovo: calming the situation in the north, holding new elections in four northern municipalities, and returning to dialogue for normalising Kosovo-Serbia reports.

Kurti insisted that the presence of Kosovo Police Special Units in the three municipalities in the north will not be reduced, until Serbian criminal gangs “are either removed or arrested. He said there would be peace in Kosovo if “there were no orders for violence from Belgrade”.

According to him, Western powers shouldn't be “t spoiled” Belgrade, which according to him is the main problem of violence in the Western Balkans.

Kurti complained that even for April elections in four municipalities in northern Kosovo, inhabited by Serb majority, “international mediators, European mediators failed to help Kosovo.

He said they asked Kosovo to make election changes, but did not pressure Serbs to participate in the elections.

The Kosovo prime minister said he now needs the international community's help to promote political pluralism in the Serb-inhabited north, and for it to have “fair, democratic for the new mayors of”.

“We cannot even have a process in which Serbian candidates boycott elections several days before they are held, because that is how Belgrade commands”, he said.

Even Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani has declared that new elections in four municipalities in the north can be held. According to her, announcing new local elections could be made if 20 per cent of voters sign a petition with this request.