Former secret service head elected as Kosovo parl't speaker

PRISTINA - Kadri Veseli, deputy leader of Hasim Taci's Democratic Party of Kosovo (DPK) was elected speaker of the Kosovo parliament on Monday.

The new parliament speaker is the former head of Kosovo secret service, known as Shik, and one of the founders of Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA, a former ethnic Albanian paramilitary formation).

Head of the Self-Determination parliamentary group Visar Imeri said at the session that electing the head of Kosovo secret service as Kosovo's parliament speaker is lamentable.

A man with a criminal background heads the parliament, said Imeri, adding that it is also lamentable to see Veseli being elected by votes of Isa Mustafa's Democratic Alliance of Kosovo (DSK), which formed the ruling coalition with DPK earlier today.

Veseli started his first address to the MPs with a tribute to Adem Jasari, as he said, the greatest hero who gave his life for Kosovo.

Jasari was the founder and leader of the first ethnic Albanian terrorist formations that fought to separate KiM from Serbia and annex it to the so-called Greater Albania. He was killed on March 5, 1998 in a clash with the Serbian police.

Speaking about the work of the parliament, Veseli said that the MPs have a lot of laws to pass, stressing particularly the law on formation of the army of Kosovo.

Veseli also addressed the MPs in Serbian, saying that for the first time all citizens, including the ones from the north (with the Serb majority) are represented in the parliament of Kosovo.

The opposition MPs left the hall during his speech.
Elected as the new deputy speakers of the Kosovo parliament are Dzavit Haliti of DPK, Glauk Konjufca of the Self-Determination Movement, Sabri Hamiti of DSK...