Serbia Calls Kosovo Policy On Its Currency ‘Crime Against Humanity’
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called Kosovo’s policy limiting the use of the Serb dinar a “crime against humanity” during an emergency meeting at the UN Security Council on Thursday.
Kosovo’s roughly 120,000-member Serb community has held tight to the dinar since a brutal late-1990s war between Serbia and ethnic Albanian insurgents saw Serbian troops and government personnel withdraw from the breakaway province.
But Kosovo has moved to enforce rules making the euro the only legal currency for payments.
Removal of the dinar “is nothing more than another in a series of acts of persecution and a systematic and widespread attack on the Serbian population — in one word, a crime against humanity,” Vucic said as Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti watched on.
Kurti has insisted a month-long transitional period was also in effect to ease into the new regulation, which would allow for further communication and time to resolve issues.
Advertisement – Scroll to Continue
“The central bank’s regulation seeks not to harm any single group of citizens, but rather to protect all citizens of every ethnic community from the threats of organized crime, arms trafficking and money laundering,” Kurti said Thursday.
“All of these activities rely on the ability of criminal groups to receive illegally smuggled cash largely across our border with Serbia.”
Serbia accused the Kosovo government of physically blocking a shipment of dinars at the border on Wednesday.
Advertisement – Scroll to Continue
Serbia’s central bank said the shipment was set to pay salaries, pensions, social benefits and other payments to Serbs in Kosovo.
Kosovo border authorities said a Serbian motorist was told only authorized companies could bring currency into the area.
Despite the latest diplomatic row, Kurti has said he aimed to normalize relations with Serbia this year, following years of stalled talks on the issue.
Advertisement – Scroll to Continue
Serbia has never acknowledged Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence, with the rivals regularly locked in fierce disagreements over even minute bureaucratic matters in the former breakaway province, such as a recent spat over license plates.
Kosovo adopted the euro as its currency in 2002, despite not being a formal member of the eurozone nor the European Union.
The currency regulation follows a tumultuous year in Kosovo that saw an armed standoff between Serb gunmen and police at a monastery near the Serbian border in September, where at least four people were killed.
abd-gw/bfm
