Witness scramble and inconsistency in the Parliament of Kosovo..and women get their share

Video clips of a parliamentary session in Kosovo spread on social media, showing how it turned into an arena of conflict and scramble among deputies.

The fight broke out in Kosovo’s parliament on Thursday after a deputy threw water at Prime Minister Ben Kurti while he was speaking about the government’s measures to calm tensions with Serbs in the north of the country.

Some opposition parties in Kosovo have criticized Kurti’s policies in the north, which have strained relations with Western allies.

Kurti faces pressure from the United States and the European Union to help calm a situation that resulted in violence in May after police-backed Albanian mayors took office following elections boycotted by the region’s Serb majority.

Dozens were wounded in clashes between Serbs, Kosovo police and NATO-led peacekeeping forces, raising fears of a conflict similar to the 1998-99 war, in which more than ten thousand people were killed.

This week, Kurti announced that he would reduce the number of special police officers stationed outside the four municipal headquarters in the Serb-majority areas of northern Kosovo and hold new mayoral elections in each town.

That infuriated the opposition, who argued Kurti had “experimented” for months and risked Kosovo’s international standing only to eventually back down.

Kurti has said he is bringing law and security into northern Kosovo with the deployment of new Albanian police and mayors.

The United States and the European Union have urged Corte to keep the mayors in various locations away from the north until the crisis is resolved.