Protester demands ‘persona non grata’ declaration for Serbian minister who spoke of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo

During the rally held in front of the Prime Ministry building, one of the participants took the floor to react harshly to a statement by Snezhana Paunoviç, a minister in the Serbian government. She had said in Serbian media that if she were in Slobodan Milosevic’s place in 1998, she would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo.

The protester called on the Albanian state to declare the Serbian minister persona non grata in the Republic of Albania. In his speech, he also stressed the need for the diplomacy of Tirana and Pristina to cooperate more closely.

“I was here last week too and I spoke to you. I am proud of all these flags. I want to start with a denunciation of a Serbian minister who spoke about ethnic cleansing,” he said. He then demanded that she be declared undesirable and added that Albanian diplomacy should be more active in relation to foreigners. “We need to work harder in this direction,” he said.

He also drew attention to the case of Kukës, where according to him a 5-euro customs duty has been imposed, a fee that he described as higher than that in the United States. The protester stressed that Albanians want development and EU membership, but that without the help of the USA they would never succeed. Finally, he announced that he would participate in the EU summit and ended his speech with the words: “God bless Albania.”