A Belgrade-based nongovernmental organization has revoked the invitation sent to Kosovar Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci to attend a regional conference later this week.
The Youth Education Committee (OOO) said in an April 20 statement that the invitations sent to the foreign ministers of Serbia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Herzegovina were also revoked because of “strong political pressure and threats from individuals and organizations.”
OOO will host the conference on the accession of the Western Balkans into the European Union on April 24.
The cancellation of the inviations comes after Serbian officials on April 16 threatened to arrest Thaci if he crosses into Serbia.
Thaci is the former leader of the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the guerrilla group that fought against Serbian forces during the 1998-1999 Kosovo conflict.
Serbia sentenced him in 1997 to 10 years in jail for “terrorism."