US official says Kosovo’s ban on dinar use may spark a ‘humanitarian issue’ for ethnic Serbs
PRISTINA, Kosovo — A senior US official said on Thursday he was “very concerned” that Kosovo’s decision to ban the use of Serbian dinar in the north could create an “emerging humanitarian problem” for the ethnic Serb minority.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gabriel Escobar met with Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti on his second day of his visit to the country in the latest US effort to restart talks between Kosovo and Serbia and normalize their ties .
Kosovo’s controversial decision to ban ethnic Serbs on its territory from using the Serbian currency, the dinar, was “an emerging humanitarian problem that we must address immediately,” Escobar said after meeting Kurti, adding that this decision “ has caused real hardship for some citizens of this country.”
The ban by Kosovo’s central bank on February 1 raised new tensions and threatened to cause chaos in Serb minority areas, where the dinar is widely used to pay pensions and salaries to staff in Serb-run institutions, including schools and hospitals .
It has also fueled Western concerns about escalating regional tensions as a full-scale war rages in Ukraine, while Washington and Brussels struggled to get dialogue between Pristina and Belgrade ‘back on track’.
Both Brussels have warned that the refusal to compromise will jeopardize the chances of Serbia and Kosovo to join the bloc, which is mediating dialogue between the former enemies.
Kosovo has delayed the introduction of the ban on the dinar by several months in response to international concerns.
The ban bans banks and other financial institutions in ethnic Serb-dominated areas, especially in northern Kosovo, from using the dinar in local transactions and requires them to use the euro, Kosovo’s official currency.
In another context, Western ambassadors from France, Germany, Italy, Britain and the United States, known as the Quint, welcomed the Kosovo government’s decision to recognize the land rights of a 14th-century Serbian Orthodox monastery of Visoki Decani . The monastery is on the list of endangered world heritage and has been fighting for almost ten years for formal title to the land around the buildings.
In 2016, Kosovo’s Supreme Court ruled that the monastery, located about 100 kilometers west of the capital Pristina, is the rightful owner of the land, but local authorities have resisted formal ownership of it for years. The international community has put pressure on the Kosovo government to legalize the monastery’s land.
Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said that the implementation of the judgment on the monastery’s land title was the final condition imposed by the Council of Europe on Kosovo’s membership.
Kosovo was a former Serbian province until a 78-day NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo and drove out Serb forces. Belgrade does not recognize Kosovo’s independence in 2008.
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Semini reported from Tirana, Albania.
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Follow Llazar Semini at https://x.com/lsemini