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STORY: UN / KOSOVO
TRT: 04:58
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 08 FEBRUARY 2024, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
FILE - NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior UN Headquarters
08 FEBRUARY 2024, NEW YORK CITY
2. Various shots, Security Council
3. Med shot, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Caroline Ziadeh, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK):
“The Central Board of Kosovo adopted a regulation and announced that, as of 1st February 2024, the only currency allowed for cash transactions in Kosovo will be the Euro. Limited public explanation was offered, despite the fact that, since 1999, the dinar has served as the de facto primary currency for cash and commercial transactions in Kosovo-Serb majority areas. Tens of thousands of individuals are affected, as is the economy, which depends upon their purchasing power.”
5. Wide shot, Council
6. Med shot, Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Caroline Ziadeh, Special Representative of the Secretary-General, and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK):
“This decision, particularly as related to the short deadline of its entry into force and the affected individuals’ future access to basic economic and social services became a matter of concern for local communities and international interlocutors. Subsequently, and in response to the obvious concerns this has raised, the Kosovo authorities on the 6th of February announced a transitional period of one month for implementation, accompanied by a communications campaign. Yet not all concerns seem to be addressed regarding the cash flow in dinars.”
8. Wide shot, Council
9. Wide shot, Vučić speaking
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Aleksandar Vučić, President, Serbia:
“The decision to ban dinar payment transactions, Pristina’s regime directly disables any operation of all medical, educational, social, cultural and other institutions that enable Serbs to provide themselves and their families with basic provisions to have education, to get medical treatment, buy medications, and do everything that is considered to be ordinary life with a minimum of human dignity.”
11. Med shot, delegates
12. SOUNDBITE (English) Aleksandar Vučić, President, Serbia:
“Imposing the Euro in this case was undeniably done not for the purpose of any rule of law, but without any legal bases and appropriate arrangements with the European Union, and only and exclusively for the purpose of completing the creation of unbearable living conditions for Serbs and their expulsion from Kosovo and Metohija. We emphasise once again that the decision to abolish the circulation of the dinar, i.e. the abolition of the dinar as a legal means of payment in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, is only one in a series of planned, well-organised, long implemented and systematic measures of Pristina which attack the Serbian population above all, and whose ultimate goal is to finally create unbearable living conditions and expel Serbs from the territory.”
13. Wide shot, Kurti speaking
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Albin Kurti, Prime Minister, Kosovo
“Let me be absolutely clear. The regulation does nothing to prohibit or prevent the Government of Serbia from providing financial support to Kosovo Serbs. Any suggestion to the contrary is nothing more than false propaganda aimed at inciting ethnic tensions. The regulation seeks merely to ensure the transparency and legality of cash imported into Kosovo, in line with both our Constitution and European Union monetary policy.”
15. Wide shot, Council
16. SOUNDBITE (English) Albin Kurti, Prime Minister, Kosovo
“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 organised crime, arms trafficking and money laundering. All of these activities rely on the ability of criminal groups to receive illegally smuggled cash, largely across our border with Serbia. Citizens in the north of Kosovo, the overwhelming majority of whom are ethnic Serbs, are threatened day in and day out by such groups. Our Serb citizens face intimidation from criminal groups dictating their actions, from protesting to voting. Disobedience results in violence, car burnings and threats to family members.”
17. Wide shot, Council
18. SOUNDBITE (English) Albin Kurti, Prime Minister, Kosovo
“Belgrade cannot be permitted endlessly to finance its criminals and terrorists in Kosovo, with undeclared and unregulated streams of money flowing freely and illegally into our country. And that distinguished members of Security Council is the real source of Belgrade's hysteria over the central bank's regulation. Belgrade has sounded the alarm not because of dinar exchange into Europe, but because we are banning large sacks of money at the border.”
19. Wide shot, Council
The Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Caroline Ziadeh today (8 Feb) told the Security Council that “limited public explanation” was offered by the Pristina authorities for the announcement that as of 1st February 2024 the only currency allowed for cash transactions in Kosovo will be the Euro.
Ziadeh noted that since 1999 the dinar has served as the de facto primary currency for cash and commercial transactions in Kosovo-Serb majority areas and “tens of thousands of individuals are affected, as is the economy, which depends upon their purchasing power.”
This decision, she continued, “particularly as related to the short deadline of its entry into force and the affected individuals’ future access to basic economic and social services became a matter of concern for local communities and international interlocutors.”
Ziadeh told the Council that “in response to the obvious concerns this has raised, the Kosovo authorities on the 6th of February announced a transitional period of one month for implementation, accompanied by a communications campaign. Yet not all concerns seem to be addressed regarding the cash flow in dinars.”
Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vučić told the Council that through its decision, “Pristina’s regime directly disables any operation of all medical, educational, social, cultural and other institutions that enable Serbs to provide themselves and their families with basic provisions to have education, to get medical treatment, buy medications, and do everything that is considered to be ordinary life with a minimum of human dignity.”
Vučić, said, “imposing the euro in this case was undeniably done not for the purpose of any rule of law, but without any legal bases and appropriate arrangements with the European Union, and only and exclusively for the purpose of completing the creation of unbearable living conditions for Serbs and their expulsion from Kosovo and Metohija.”
He emphasised that “the decision to abolish the circulation of the dinar, i.e. the abolition of the dinar as a legal means of payment in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, is only one in a series of planned, well-organised, long implemented and systematic measures of Pristina which attack the Serbian population above all, and whose ultimate goal is to finally create unbearable living conditions and expel Serbs from the territory.”
Serbia requested today’s meeting.
For his part, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti said, “the regulation does nothing to prohibit or prevent the Government of Serbia from providing financial support to Kosovo Serbs. Any suggestion to the contrary is nothing more than false propaganda aimed at inciting ethnic tensions. The regulation seeks merely to ensure the transparency and legality of cash imported into Kosovo, in line with both our Constitution and European Union monetary policy.”
Kurti said, “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 organised crime, arms trafficking and money laundering. All of these activities rely on the ability of criminal groups to receive illegally smuggled cash, largely across our border with Serbia. Citizens in the north of Kosovo, the overwhelming majority of whom are ethnic Serbs, are threatened day in and day out by such groups. Our Serb citizens face intimidation from criminal groups dictating their actions, from protesting to voting. Disobedience results in violence, car burnings and threats to family members.”
He said, “Belgrade cannot be permitted endlessly to finance its criminals and terrorists in Kosovo, with undeclared and unregulated streams of money flowing freely and illegally into our country. And that distinguished members of Security Council is the real source of Belgrade's hysteria over the central bank's regulation. Belgrade has sounded the alarm not because of dinar exchange into Europe, but because we are banning large sacks of money at the border.”
On 18 January, the Central Bank of Kosovo announced the new policy on cash operations which it said aims to control the amount of money in circulation, protect the integrity of the financial system, prevent counterfeit money, ensure consumer protection, and tackle money laundering and terrorist financing activities.
