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World|life|March 22, 2018 / 03:32 PM
Kosovo MPs use tear gas to block border vote

AKIPRESS.COM - Opposition lawmakers set off tear gas canisters in Kosovo's Parliament chamber on Wednesday in an attempt to prevent the ratification of a border agreement with neighboring Montenegro, CNN reported.

Video posted to social media showed lawmakers wiping their eyes and noses as they left the chamber in Kosovo's capital, Pristina.

The tear gas was released by opposition party Levizja Vetvendosje, according to Avni Bytyçi, deputy chief of staff to Speaker Kadri Veseli. It was a tactic the party had used previously to prevent voting, Bytyçi said.

Ratification of the border deal is a key condition for Kosovo citizens to gain visa-free travel to the European Union, Bytyçi said.

Levizja Vetevendosje, or Movement for Self-Determination, posted a clip of the tear gas being let off in the chamber on its official Facebook page.

The party opposes the border deal, signed with Montenegro in 2015, because it claims it will wrongly hand over some 30 square miles of Kosovo's territory, Reuters news agency said.

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