Tag: Igor Crnadak

Kosovo has accused Bosnian authorities of mixing sports with politics after its basketball team were not issued visas in time to enter Bosnia and compete in the U-16 European Championship that is currently taking place in Sarajevo. Kosovo's team was scheduled to play against the Bosnia and Herzegovina side on Thursday, the first day of the tournament which runs until August 16. However the Kosovo Basketball Federation (FBK) told local media that by late Wednesday it still had not received an answer from Bosnia's nearest embassy in Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, about the status of the team's visa applications. Bosnia and Serbia are the only two countries from former Yugoslavia that have not recognised Kosovo's independence from Belgrade, which it declared in 2008. Bosnia has not recognised Kosovo primarily because ethnic Serb politicians align themselves with the positions of Serbia. "Kosovo became a full member of FIBA more than three years ago and trying to place political obstacles with the obvious purpose of jeopardising Kosovo's participation in this sports event up to the last minute, not only violates the basic European principle of freedom of movement, but also FIBA's own rules," the ministry stated. Bosnian Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Crnadak told Bosnian news website Klix on Wednesday that the ministry did not deny visas for the team - rather the visas were still being processed. "It's important for us to have this kind of confirmation because one of the participants is Kosovo, which Bosnia and Herzegovina hasn't recognised [as a country]." KSBIH made the necessary measures in order for the Kosovo representation to receive their visas on time to enter our country," KSBIH's statement read. "From the Bosnian embassy in Macedonia, we received the notification that the visas are ready and that they're expecting consent from the Minister of Foreign Affairs Igor Crnadak so that they can issue [the visas] to the Kosovo representation."