Kosovo’s Raid on Last Serb Bank Triggers Tensions With Belgrade
(Bloomberg) -- Kosovo police shut down the offices of the last Serbian bank on its territory as part of a currency crackdown, drawing a furious response from Serbian government officials.
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Police carrying rifles and wearing bullet-proof vests on Monday entered six branches of Banka Postanska Stedionica in northern Kosovo, home to the biggest Serb community in the country. Its members rely on pension and other welfare payments in dinars delivered from Serbia.
Serbian Prime Minister Milos Vucevic denounced the raids, calling them “another savage act that directly jeopardizes the survival of Serbs in Kosovo.”
Kosovo split from Serbia in 2008 and has been using the euro as the only currency acceptable in cash payments since 2002, with the dinar used exclusively in Serb municipalities.
Xhelal Svecla, Kosovo’s interior minister, confirmed the police action against Banka Postanska Stedionica, which he described as an “illegal financial institution.”
Read More: Currency Crackdown in Kosovo Turns the Screws on Ethnic Serbs
Representatives from Kosovo and Serbia met with European Union mediators in Brussels last week in the latest attempt to resolve the currency row, but the talks ended in mutual recrimination.
“If the international community doesn’t come to its senses, all this will lead to new conflicts in the Balkans, with unforeseeable consequences,” Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Monday.
The action comes a week after the central bank of Kosovo announced that the transitional period for its Feb. 1 regulation, which prohibits the use of the Serbian dinar for payments, had ended.
It has licensed eight branches of financial institutions in municipalities with a Serb majority where people in Serbia can send money to citizens living in Kosovo. The authorities in Pristina intend to tax and register these transactions.
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