Last night, the permanent members of the UN Security Council expressed their reservations about Pristina’s intention to unilaterally ban the use of the dinar in Kosovo without adequate consultation with its partners and called on it to postpone the implementation of that measure.
During the discussion at the extraordinary session of the UN Security Council on the situation in Kosovo, scheduled at the request of Belgrade, US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield stated that Washington expressed reservations about the decision to make the euro the only means of payment in Kosovo.
She called on Pristina to postpone the implementation of that measure until appropriate mechanisms are defined, in accordance with European standards.
Thomas-Greenfield also criticized the recent actions of the Kosovo police regarding the closure of three “parallel Serbian municipalities” and the raid on the premises of the non-governmental organization Center for Communities in Pristina, stating that “those moves are not in line with the efforts of Pristina to create a multi-ethnic society”.
On the other hand, Thomas-Greenfield said that the US expects Serbia to prosecute those responsible for the armed conflict in the village of Banjska on September 24 last year.
The British ambassador to the UN, James Kariuki, said that Serbia and Kosovo “must respect their commitments and avoid unilateral actions in order to lay the foundations for a mutually acceptable and sustainable agreement”.
Regarding the decision of the Pristina authorities to ban the use of the dinar in Kosovo, Kariuki said that there is a problem due to its influence on minority communities.
He stated that it is necessary to ensure that Serbs and other communities continue to receive income in dinars until a sustainable solution is found.
Kariuki, like Thomas-Greenfield, said that London calls on Serbia to bring to justice those responsible for the conflict with the Kosovo police in the village of Banjska.
The deputy Russian ambassador to the UN, Dmitrij Poljanski, accused Pristina of carrying out “anti-Serb terror with the aim of making all the Serbian population leave the territory of Kosovo forever, and asked the members of the UN Security Council to stand up for the protection of Kosovo Serbs”.
The Chinese ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, said that the unilateral actions of Pristina do not contribute to the solution of the Kosovo issue, but that they cause tensions that Beijing considers “very serious”.
Zhang said that Beijing is asking the UN Mission in Kosovo to demand the cancellation of Pristina’s “illegal and unreasonable” decisions, and the Kosovo authorities to immediately abandon them.
He stated that the situation in Kosovo affects the stability of the Balkans and Europe and repeated Beijing’s well-known position that Belgrade and Pristina should reach a mutually acceptable solution through dialogue, within the framework of UNSC Resolution 1244, while respecting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Serbia.
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, said that “the Pristina authorities are intensifying systematic attacks on the Serbian population”, and that such actions, in the absence of an appropriate reaction, “can cause irreparable damage to the survival of the Serbian people in Kosovo”.
He cited data that Serbia from its budget pays 60,946 salaries and pensions in Kosovo, 2,430 student scholarships and finances soup kitchens for about 2,000 socially most vulnerable citizens, stressing that “it is obvious that the ban on dinar payments and the abolition of the dinar as a means of payment directly deprives a huge number of inhabitants of basic personal means of living”.
Pristina, Vučić asserted, directly prevents the functioning of all social, health, educational, social, cultural and other institutions that enable Serbs to provide themselves and their families with the basic necessities of life.
He also pointed to the increased number of attacks on Kosovo Serbs, stating that since the current Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti came to power in 2021, a total of 669 ethnically motivated attacks have been registered in Kosovo, and that this is an increase of 300 percent compared to the previous period, accusing Kurti to “lead the persecution of Serbs”.
Vučić asked the international community for “urgent and decisive steps” in order to stop the persecution of Serbs from Kosovo and to create conditions for the continuation of normal dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
Serbia will implement all agreements and all moves in accordance with the resolutions of the United Nations, said Vučić at the session of the UN Security Council.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, pointed out that the decree of the Central Bank of Kosovo does not prohibit the Government of Serbia from providing financial support to the Kosovo Serbs, judging that everything else is “propaganda of the authorities in Belgrade”. The regulation is there to ensure the transparency and legality of bringing cash into Kosovo, and the same rules apply to any country and currency – dinar, dollar, pound or Albanian lek, Kurti said at the UN Security Council session.
He asserted that CBK is doing everything to ensure that Kosovo Serbs continue to receive financial support from Serbia, and that it has sent a letter to the National Bank of Serbia to propose an agreement to resolve this. Kurti emphasized that his government is ready to provide a “smooth transition” and enough time for the transition period. He assessed that Belgrade is not worried about dinars, but about the impossibility of transferring bags of money to the north of Kosovo in an illegal way.
The Prime Minister of Kosovo invited the President of Serbia to sign the Brussels Agreement tonight and the agreement and the implementation annex from Ohrid “here and now”, assessing how it would show commitment to peaceful and good-neighborly relations with Kosovo, reports Hina.
Photo: archive
