Kurti in Sarajevo: Strengthening Bosnia and Kosovo Helps to Prevent Serbia from Repeating Crimes

Albin Kurti (Photo: European Commissionl/Claudio Centonze)

Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said during a Dec. 6 visit to Sarajevo that strengthening Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo would help Serbia avoid repeating its crimes.

Speaking at a session of the Circle 99 Association of Independent Intellectuals in Sarajevo's City Hall, Kurti said that the authorities in Serbia were denying the crimes committed in Bosnia and Kosovo. "Serbs deny their criminal past because, by doing so, they demonstrate that they would repeat them given a chance," he said.

Kurti noted that he came to Bosnia as a "friend and partner," underlining that the relationship between Bosnia and Kosovo was based "on people and values." "Bosnia and Kosovo are connected through a painful and tragic past. In many ways, Kosovo owes Bosnia. In Bosnia, NATO intervened after four years of war, while in Kosovo, it acted after two," Kurti stated.

During his visit to Sarajevo, Kurti met with members of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Zeljko Komsic and Denis Becirovic, the Prime Minister of the Muslim-Croat Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nermin Niksic, and the leader of the Party of Democratic Action, Bakir Izetbegovic. Kurti's visit to Sarajevo, initially announced as private, drew sharp criticism from Republika Srpska, which warned that the Bosnian Serb entity would provide a "coordinated and institutional response" to it.