Serb members of the Kosovan government on Tuesday decided to pull out of Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj's cabinet in protest at the arrest and expulsion of a senior Serbian official. Tensions flared after Belgrade's chief negotiator for Kosovo Marko Djuric was arrested Monday on crossing into the former Serbian province that unilaterally proclaimed independence in 2008 and travelling to the ethnically divided town of Mitrovica for a meeting in defiance of a ban.
Unlike more than 110 states, including the United States and most of European Union member states, Serbia has refused to recognise Kosovo's independence and still considers it its southern province.
As a result, the ethnic Serbian members "will leave the government which will no longer have our support," Goran Rakic, leader of the main Serbian minority grouping, told reporters after meeting Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in Belgrade.
Vucic had Monday slammed Djuric's treatment as an abduction just as both sides try to establish a dialogue. Kosovo authorities responded that he had not obtained entry authorisation.
Serbian officials visiting Kosovo commonly seek Pristina's approval before visiting areas with an ethnic Serb population.
Haradinaj's government depends on Serb group's support but he responded Tuesday by insisting his team "will not fall" while calling his Serb colleagues' decision "incomprehensible."
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