RFI: Kosovo on the verge of a new crisis, dinar could spur a storm of fire

Kosovo is on the verge of a new crisis with the government banning the use of Serbian money, despite Western countries' alarmged warnings that it could spur a storm of fire. This latest move threatens to spark the long series of conflicts with Kosovo Serb minority”, wrote RFI in the article entitled “Stopping the Serbian dinar risks a new crisis in Kosovo”.

A European news network article “Euronews” warns that the Kosovo Central Bank regulation (BQK) for cash operations, specifying that the only currency allowed for payment/transaction is euros and therefore, is expelled from the Serbian dinar in Kosovo, could add new levels of tension to a known environment.

Kosovo seems to risk a new wave of ethnic tensions with the decision to remove the Serbian dinar from the monetary system. Banning transactions in dinars could effectively exclude the local Serb minority, which use the dinar widely from the financial system in Kosovo. This could bring another crisis with Serbia”, “Euronews” wrote on Thursday.

The report of “Euronews” on the issue says among other things that Serbia chose this very moment to review the return of mandatory military service Serbia gave up mandatory military service on January 1st of 2011, while the proposal for retraining the move was initiated by Serbia's Army General Staff earlier this year.

Serbia's “government views Kosovo's movement as a provocation, and analysts say it will almost certainly undermine the ongoing efforts to calm tensions between Belgrade and Pristina”, says in the article of “Euronews” in the form of warning titled: “All bets are valid until Kosovo and Serbia face a wave crisis”.

Two of the main newspapers in Great Britain é “Financial Times” and “The Telegraph” have also written about the BEC's changed regulation, paying special attention to the QUINT request of the United States, Germany, France, Great Britain and Italy for the Kosovo government to suspend implementation of the BQC regulation.

Kosovo is challenging Western prayers to postpone Serbia's currency ban on cash transactions on Kosovo territory -- a proposal that has caused new tensions between the two countries after decades of instability in the region” -- wrote “Financial Times”, past Albanian Post.

“Kosovo will ban the use of the Serbian currency from Thursday, threatening to cause a new crisis in the region”, the Kosovo executive wrote on the other hand “The Telegraph” on Wednesday, adding that despite concerns of Western diplomats, the Kosovo executive is determined to move forward.

The Western diplomats have warned that the Kosovo government's insistence on ethnic Serbs adopting the euro could lead to a renewal of clashes [...] The dispute over the dinar risks plunge the Balkan nation back into turmoil”, the Telegraph” wrote among other things.

In Serb majority-inhabited areas in Kosovo, except for euro currency, the Serbian dinar has so far been used. In the four northern municipalities of northern Mitrovica, Leposaviq, Zvecan and Zubin Potok have been marked with dinars. The importation of dinars from Serbia has also been practiced in recent years, but on February 1st this practice is expected to stop.

While the search scope for “responses” and “the solution platform” is expected to continue remains to be seen whether the list of violent scenarios that could result from the question of the dinar and existing tensions between Kosovo and Serbia or the by-products of manic passions will be expanded or local Serbs will adapt to the euro.