Today, Serbia requested an extraordinary session of the UN Security Council due to the situation in Kosovo and new tensions fueled by Pristina’s decision to abolish the Serbian dinar in payments and trade, which Belgrade sees as an illegal decision and an attempt to completely ethnically cleanse the Serbs from that area.
In Kosovo, the decree of the Central Bank of Kosovo (CBK) entered into force on Thursday, which foresees cash payments and payment transactions exclusively in euros, which increased the concern of the Serbian community because they receive salaries and pensions from Serbia in dinars, which they use for buying and selling.
The international community requested earlier that Kosovo postpone the implementation of that decision, explaining that there is concern that it could have a negative impact on Kosovo Serbs, reports Hina.
The State Department and the European Union expressed their concern in official statements, indicating the consequences that the CBK’s decision to abolish the dinar in payment transactions could have on the daily life of Kosovo Serbs, tens of thousands of whom receive dinar salaries and pensions through the Serbian treasury.
Washington called on Kosovo “to immediately postpone the implementation of the decision, until satisfactory procedures in accordance with European standards are fulfilled” and “until the population is sufficiently informed about how the transition will be carried out”, with a longer transitional period.
Serbia’s ambassador to the UN mission, Nemanja Stevanović, handed today a request for convening an extraordinary special session of the UN Security Council to the mission of Guyana, which currently chairs that UN body. In it, the Council’s attention was drawn to the current situation in Kosovo.
In the request, Serbia states, among other things, that “it is on the territory of Kosovo, which – in accordance with the UN Charter, other rules of international law and UN Security Council Resolution 1244 from 1999 – is part of the Republic of Serbia, and on which international administration has been established of the UN”, in the course of the “culmination of long-term and well-planned and systematic actions” of the leadership of the Kosovo Albanians, “to which the Serbs are deliberately subjected to unbearable living conditions”.
In the letter, which will also be forwarded to all representatives of the EU member states and EU institutions, as well as to the presidents and prime ministers of the member states of the UN Security Council, including Russia and China, it was pointed out that the situation “is in sharp contrast to the Charter of the UN and Resolution 1244” and is of such a nature that it requires holding a special session of the Council.
Serbia states that the latest act of the Kosovo authorities “represents the continuity of measures of brutal physical and institutional violence against Serbs” and that the ultimate goal of the authorities in Pristina is “complete ethnic cleansing and the disappearance of the Serb population from that area – which is currently underway”.
