Kosovo

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and nine other former separatist fighters were indicted Wednesday on a range of crimes against humanity and war crimes charges, including murder, by an international prosecutor probing their actions against ethnic Serbs and others during and after Kosovo’s 1998-99 independence war with Serbia.

Because of the indictment, Thaci has postponed his trip to Washington, where he was to meet Saturday for talks at the White House with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo’s coalition government faces a no-confidence vote in parliament on Wednesday after a dispute over whether to declare a state of emergency to combat the coronavirus.

The vote is set to go ahead despite pleas by France and Germany for the Balkan country’s leaders to put aside their differences and focus on trying to curb the spread of the virus.

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo’s two biggest parties reached a deal on Sunday to create a new government almost four months after the Balkan country held snap elections following the prime minister’s resignation.

Albin Kurti, the 44-year-old leader of the leftist Vetevendosje (Self Determination) party said he would become prime minister under the deal and work with the centre-right Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) and other groups.

“We have signed the deal,” Kurti told a joint press conference with LDK leader Isa Mustafa.

6 October 2019; AFP: Kosovo went to the polls Sunday in an election that could usher in new leadership at a time when stalled talks with former war foe Serbia are a source of instability in Europe.

Whoever takes the reins will be under heavy pressure from the West to renew dialogue with Belgrade, which still rejects the independence its former province declared in 2008.

PRISTINA (Reuters) - Kosovo lawmakers voted to dissolve parliament on Thursday, paving the way for a parliamentary election after Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj resigned last month.

A total of 89 deputies voted to dissolve the 120-seat parliament. An election should take place within 45 days.

20 July 2019; DW: Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo's prime minister and a former guerilla commander, gave up his post after being summoned as a war crimes suspect before a special court. He has already been acquitted twice before in The Hague.

An EU-backed war crimes court called on Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj to show up for questioning in the Hague, causing Haradinaj to unexpectedly resign on Friday.

12 June 2019; AFP: With celebratory speeches, a new statue and a visit from former US president Bill Clinton, Kosovo will on Wednesday mark 20 years since the NATO intervention that ended its war with Serbia and cleared a path for independence.

June 12, 1999, the day when NATO entered Kosovo after a three-month assault on Serb forces, marks the moment Belgrade effectively lost control of its former province.

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — A senior U.S. official on Saturday met with top Kosovo leaders in an attempt to persuade the government to revoke or suspend a tariff on Serb goods so that dialogue with Belgrade can resume.

Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale is the latest U.S. envoy to take part in shuttle diplomacy between Kosovo and Serbia. He met with Kosovo’s president, speaker and prime minister at the residence of the U.S. ambassador. A day earlier, he was in Belgrade.

13 Jan 2019; AFP: A possible land swap between Serbia and Kosovo, suggested by their leaders to end one of Europe's most volatile territorial disputes, has sparked concerns that the border could be redrawn along ethnic lines and reignite festering communal ethnic animosities.

With few details yet made public, media reports say that the Serb majority northern border region around the city of Mitrovica would be incorporated into Serbia under the plan, which would also see Belgrade hand over a mainly ethnic Albanian region in Serbia.

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — Serbia talked up the possibility of an armed intervention in Kosovo Friday after the parliament in Pristina overwhelmingly approved the formation of an army, with Belgrade calling the move the “most direct threat to peace and stability in the region.”

While NATO’s chief called Kosovo’s move “ill-timed,” the U.S. approved it as “Kosovo’s sovereign right.”