Kosovo Police Fire Tear Gas as Protesters Denounce Push to Curb Hague War Crimes Court

Kosovo's capital descended into chaos on Monday evening when riot police clashed with demonstrators outside the national Parliament, firing tear gas and water cannons at a crowd incensed by a legislative effort to restrict the authority of a Hague-based tribunal that prosecutes war crimes.

The unrest in Pristina erupted shortly after lawmakers wrapped up their session without holding a decisive second vote on the proposed amendments, which target the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, a court established to handle crimes committed during the 1998-2000 Kosovo War. The measures had cleared an initial reading earlier in the day, but parliamentary proceedings were adjourned before the legislation could advance further.

Hundreds of people had massed outside the Parliament building, among them backers and former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the ethnic Albanian insurgent group that battled Serbian forces during the conflict. As the session concluded, some in the crowd attempted to prevent legislators from departing the premises. Law enforcement responded with tear gas and water cannons, while protesters hurled flares and firecrackers toward officers.

Naser Syla, who directs emergency services at a Pristina hospital, told The Associated Press that 12 individuals sustained injuries, 11 of them civilians. The confrontations marked a sharp escalation in a political crisis that has been building since a landmark war crimes verdict last month.

At the center of the controversy is the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, an institution founded in 2015 as an independent component of Kosovo's judicial system but headquartered in The Hague and staffed by international personnel. The court was created at the insistence of Western allies to prosecute alleged atrocities committed by KLA members during the war. Its location outside Kosovo was deliberately chosen, partly out of concern that political interference and threats against witnesses could compromise proceedings.

The amendments debated on Monday would impose a 15-year cap on sentences, permit prison terms to be served within Kosovo, and allow appeals to be heard by the self-declared republic's Supreme Court — provisions that critics say would effectively neuter the tribunal's ability to deliver justice.

The legislative push follows the September 16 convictions of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three other onetime KLA commanders on war crimes charges. Thaci received a 25-year prison sentence, while his co-defendants were handed terms ranging from 13 to 25 years. All four have maintained their innocence. The verdicts ignited weeks of protests and drew unanimous condemnation from Kosovo's Parliament in late September.

The court has long been a flashpoint in Kosovo, where the KLA is widely revered as the force that resisted Serbian repression and propelled the territory toward its 2008 declaration of independence. Belgrade has never recognized that sovereignty. The 1998-99 conflict claimed roughly 13,000 lives, the vast majority of them ethnic Albanians, and displaced approximately one million Kosovo Albanians before a 78-day NATO bombing campaign against Serbian forces brought the fighting to an end.

Critics of the tribunal argue that its rulings have been excessively harsh, a sentiment that has fueled public anger and given political momentum to efforts to curtail its powers.

The question of overhauling the court has also become entangled in a broader political struggle over Kosovo's presidency. The country's Constitutional Court has ruled that the self-declared republic must elect a president by October 6. Should lawmakers fail to meet that deadline, Parliament will be dissolved and Kosovo will be forced into yet another early election — a prospect that has intensified pressure on rival factions to reach a deal.

The Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK), the largest opposition bloc and the sponsor of the bill, has tied its support for a presidential vote to the successful passage of the court amendments. Prime Minister Albin Kurti's governing Vetevendosje party, also known as the Self-Determination Movement, has taken the opposite position, insisting that the presidential election should proceed first.

Kurti allowed the bill to move forward but told Parliament on Monday that the proposed changes had been hastily drafted. He has also suggested that the appeals process, rather than legislative intervention, should be the appropriate avenue for challenging the contentious September convictions.

The impasse leaves Kosovo at a precarious juncture. With a constitutional deadline looming and streets still smoldering from Monday's clashes, lawmakers face mounting pressure to resolve both the fate of the war crimes court and the vacant presidency. How they navigate that dual crisis in the coming days could shape not only Kosovo's domestic political landscape but also its already fragile standing with international partners who helped establish the tribunal in the first place.