1st LD Writethru: Over 100 people injured in violent protest in Kosovo

The presence of chaos embroiled the centre of Pristina on Tuesday during an anti-government protest which erupted in clashes between protesters and Kosovo police. Over 100 people got injured in both camps, while a police officer was seriously wounded.

In the emergency centre of Pristina, medical staff offered assistance to at least 28 people, 15 of them police officers and 13 protesters. Tens of other injured people with less severe injuries were treated in different medical centers.

Kosovo police said the protest was not legally announced by the organizers, though it was not their intention to prevent it, but a small group of people started to attack the police with stones and other hard materials.

"It was not our intention to prevent the protest, but the violence expressed from some of the protesters (forced) us to undertake appropriate measures to disperse them," said the spokesperson of the Kosovo Police, Baki Kelani.

Police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse the protesters which regrouped many times and confronted police with stones, heavy materials and in one case it's reported that they used a Molotov cocktail, though it's not confirmed.

The mayor of Pristina, Shpend Ahmeti, a senior member of the Self-determination movement, was shortly arrested and then realized as he was among the protesters.

The violence started shortly after the beginning of the protest organized by the opposition Self-determination movement against the government following a statement of a Serbian minister in the Kosovo authorities which was regarded insulting to mothers of missing persons.

The statements of the Minister for Communities and Returns, Aleksandar Jablanovic, concerned an incident when a bus with about 40 displaced Serbs was stoned during a protest of Albanian mothers of missing persons in Gjakova/Djakovica on Jan. 6.

Jablanovic called the women protesters "beasts" for preventing Serbs from visiting their burnt out houses. He apologized for the remarks two weeks later, but it showed to be insufficient in preventing new protests which have been taking place all over Kosovo.

In a mass protest on last Saturday, the Self-determination movement set an ultimatum to "Prime Minister" Isa Mustafa to dismiss Jablanovic by Monday evening, which he ignored. In response Self-determination organized the protest Tueaday at noon insisting in their demand for dismissing Jablanovic.

Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in 2008. Serbia categorically refuses to recognize its independence. Endit