Kosovo Opposition Rally Against Serbia Land Swap Plan

Pristina, Sept 29 (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 29th Sep, 2018 ) :Several thousand people protested Saturday in Pristina against Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and his plans to make changes to the border with Serbia.

Thaci and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic this summer signalled an openness to "border adjustments" aimed at resolving a longstanding feud between Belgrade and Pristina.

This is Thaci's "own adventure.... He does not have a mandate to negotiate it", Albin Kurti, the leader of the left-wing nationalist Vetevendosje (Self-Determination) party told the crowd.

Media have mooted an exchange of northern Kosovo, inhabited mostly by ethnic Serbs around the divided town of Mitrovica, and the Presevo valley, a majority ethnic Albanian area in southern Serbia.

"No man should be subjected to him (Thaci) let alone a people," said Kurti, a fierce opponent of the Kosovo president.

In 2017 elections Vetevendosje became the biggest party with almost 30 percent of votes.

"Down with Thaci! Down with Thaci!" the crowd chanted carrying placards reading "No bargain with Serbia".

An exchange of the territory "will be possible only if you want to have bloodbath here", one protester, 57-year old Tafil Latifi, told AFP.

Following the 1998-1999 independence war between ethnic Albanian guerrillas and Belgrade's armed forces, which ended after NATO kicked Serbian troops out of Kosovo, the breakaway territory unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008.

Belgrade has fiercly rejected the move and still considers it its southern province.