Kosovo opposition launches teargas to disrupt president's inauguration

PanARMENIAN.Net - Opposition supporters have launched tear gas to try to disrupt the inauguration ceremony for the new president, Hashim Thaci, the Associated Press reports.

Canisters were launched before the start of the ceremony at Pristina's main Skenderbeg Square Friday, April 8. It later continued normally.

Thaci, 47, assumed his post Thursday in a swearing-in ceremony at the Parliament.

The opposition boycotted that, as well as the vote Feb. 26, which it also tried to disrupt with tear gas. Its later request to void the voting was turned down by the Constitutional Court.

The opposition has been disrupting the chamber since last September to protest a deal between Kosovo and Serbia that gives more powers to ethnic Serbs in Kosovo and another on a border demarcation pact with Montenegro.