The United Nations Security Council convened Thursday afternoon for an urgent session in response to the decision by Albin Kurti’s government to suspend the Serbian dinar in Kosovo starting February 1, 2024. 

The Kosovo government political debacle came into view with all the subtlety of a train wreck, captivating the gaze of the international community, particularly the United States of America. The State Department asked the Kosovo Prime Minister to reassess his course and suspend any action to suspend Serbian dinar, the story The Pavlovic Today reported first. Then, when quizzed by us, which merited the State Department’s confidence that Kurti would take their advice seriously,  Patel responded by saying that this would be in the best interest of all parties. 

Fast forward to February 1st, Kurti was bulldozing through opposition from Serbia to the US to the EU. With the Kosovo Central Bank as his  “rule of law” instrument, he effectively wreaked havoc on the lives of over 100,000 Serbs in Kosovo.

The United States, in the strongest of the ways, told Kurti to suspend the decision “immediately” but he instead doubled down by sending Kosovo Police, paid by the American taxpayers who are likely oblivious to their indirect involvement, to intercept the vehicle carrying funds to Serbs. 

In Washington, as reported by The Pavlovic Today, support for Kurti was dwindling by the minute.

The UN Security Council entered the fray, having remained on the sidelines of the Kosovo issue since 2010. The urgent open press session on Thursday, February 8th, marked a milestone, thrusting this increasingly crucial Kosovo issue into the spotlight amidst a global affairs landscape vastly altered from two decades prior. UN Security Council open press session marked one thing only, that the world cannot turn the blind eye to the dire situation local Serbs face in Kosovo under the hand of Albin Kurti.

The vast interest of the UN Security Council member states to take part in the Thursday discussion is politically significant as the more transparency and information is brought to the table, the more eyes of world will be watching. So it will The Pavlovic Today who was on the ground in New York City.

Let’s dive in. 

President Vucic talks about “senseless hatred” of PM Albin Kurti towards Serbs

The President of Serbia and the members of the delegation took their seats, followed by Prime Minister of Kosovo, Albin Kurti, and his delegation, as they were called to the UN Security Council table.

Caroline Ziadeh, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Kosovo and Head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo, who briefed UN Security Council member states on the situation on the ground in Kosovo, opened the session with introductory remarks. 

She noted that despite the agreement Belgrade and Pristina reached  in Ohrid on 18 March 2023, progress on the implementation of the annexes has stalled. Caroline Ziadeh outlined a series of escalations that have lately transpired and expressed “great concern” regarding the unilateral actions taken by PM Albin Kurti, which have fostered an atmosphere of regional instability.

“Subsequent developments such as the by-elections in four municipalities in northern Kosovo, resulting in Mayors elected by barely 3.47% of eligible voters, the ensuing clashes around those municipality buildings on 29 May that resulted in significant injuries to civilians and to 93 KFOR personnel, and the serious security incident in Banjska on 24 September – still under investigation – that led to fatalities; were serious setbacks,” she said.

Caroline Ziadeh confirmed that on both January 26th and February 2nd, Kosovo police carried out operations targeting facilities utilized by Serbian non-majority communities in the Municipalities of Dragaš, Peć, Klina, and Istok, along with a community health center in Pristina. The Kosovo police announced that across these four municipal locations, various documents were confiscated, buildings were secured, and staff were briefly detained for questioning before being released.

Additionally, during a previous police operation in Peć on January 2nd, a group of journalists from Radio Goraždevac, the sole Kosovo-Serbian media outlet in that area, reported being halted and searched despite possessing valid press credentials.

Ziadeh also addressed the latest measure, the suspension of the Serbian dinar, highlighting that “limited public explanation” has been provided for this decision. Ziadeh emphased that since 1999, the dinar has served as the de facto primary currency for cash and commercial transactions in Kosovo where ethnic Serbs live.

“Regardless which side takes them and what justifications are provided, and in the absence of unambiguous public communications, such actions predictably exacerbate an environment of insecurity and mistrust,” she said.

She emphasized that Prime Minister Albin Kurti’s regulation has indeed disrupted payments to recipients of pensions, small businesses, health and educational services, and child services, all of which depend on funds from Serbia.

She also expressed concern over the recent incident where a cash-transfer truck was barred from entering the checkpoints in Kosovo. Additionally, she mentioned that around four million dinars seized by the Kosovo police on February 3rd in Peć are still pending judicial and administrative proceedings.

Ziadeh’s words reverberated throughout the remainder of the two-hour session, with each member state echoing the message of “great concern” regarding Prime Minister Kurti’s unilateral actions and their detrimental effects on the ethnic Serbs in Kosovo.

The President of Serbia spoke next. 

Aleksandar Vucic expressed profound gratitude to the UN Security Council for swiftly convening the session, underlining its utmost importance given the current situation in Kosovo and Metohija, which he noted contradicts the principles outlined in the UN Charter and Security Council Resolution 1244. 

He stressed that Serbs in Kosovo endure “intolerable” living conditions, driven by the harmful policies of Albin Kurti, which, in his view, have a singular aim: to coerce the population into leaving the territory.

Speaking for the first time in an international open forum since the suspension of the Serbian dinar in Kosovo, Vucic emphasized the critical need of Serbs whose livelihoods depend on funds from Serbia.

“Serbia pays 60,946 salaries and pensions in Kosovo and Metohija, 2,430 scholarships for students, and finances soup kitchens that meet the basic needs of around 2,000 of the most socially vulnerable citizens from this budget,” said Vucic.

He emphasized that Albin Kurti is deliberately inflicting harm on the Serbian population through his unilateral and uncoordinated actions, persecuting them.

Vucic cited numerous examples of ethnically motivated attacks targeting local Serbs, which are not typically covered in international news but nonetheless remain a reality on the ground.

President of Serbia Aleksander Vucic addresses UN Security Council [ Photo: UN TV screenshot]

He also talked about an important last year’s mayoral elections in the north that the Serbs did not participate in. The President of Serbia stated that Pristina, against the wishes of the Serbian population, conducted elections in four municipalities where Serbs make up over 97% of the population. These elections were boycotted by the Serbs, with only a minimal percentage of participation. The President highlighted the undemocratic conditions under which the elections were held, with Albanian mayors seizing control of local governments with the aid of heavily armed forces. Serbs were prevented from accessing their workplaces in local governments, which were fenced off and surrounded by barbed wire. As a result, peaceful Serbian protests ensued, met with violence from Albanian armed groups, resulting in the injury of over 50 Serbs on May 29th.

The President of Serbia in this address  to the UN Security Council stated that the only solution to the evolving  crisis in Kosovo is a direct order by the UN Security Council  to Pristina to suspend the measures to suspend dinar and refrain from unilateral moves. He emphasized the urgent need for the UN Security Council to take decisive measures to stop the persecution of Serbs.  Serbia pledges to implement all agreements.

Next spoke Albin Kurti

Albin Kurti deflected from the crux of the matter, opting instead for a barrage of ad hominem attacks aimed squarely at Serbia. As if ensconced in a time capsule circa 1999, Kurti’s rhetoric remained disconnected from the realities of 2024.

Rather than addressing the decision of suspension of the Serbian dinar the whole international community told him and kept telling him not to, he acted as there were no legitimate concerns on the table. Instead, he opted to trumpet the achievements of his government while conspicuously evading the substantive topic at hand.

Essentially, Kurti provided a distorted account of the situation on the ground and ignored the concerns raised by both the US and the EU. 

His cavalier dismissal of the suspension of the dinar as a mere “nothing burger” flagrantly disregards the persistent admonitions from both the US and the EU regarding its adverse repercussions on the Serbian populace.

What followed was a chorus of member states spanning from Russia to the United States, China to the UK, echoing a unified message to PM Albin Kurti. His unilateral and uncoordinated decision to wreak havoc on ethnic Serbs and European stability was unequivocally condemned. 

Even traditionally supportive states like the United Kingdom and the United States found themselves in a position where Kurti left them with no room to present him favorably in front of the international press. 

Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett (left), Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations and President of the Security Council for the month of February, chairs the Security Council meeting on discussion of developments in Kosovo. [UN Photo/Eskinder Debebe]

From Russia to the United States 

A Russian representative to the UN Security Council emphasized that the situation in Kosovo has escalated to such an extent that it now poses a direct threat to the survival of the Serbs, with an imminent risk of violence erupting in the Balkans. In light of these circumstances, Russia  believes that the Security Council must intervene to restrain the Kosovo government.

Furthermore, the representative condemned the United States’ decision to provide Kosovo with Javelin missiles as a “provocative step” that constitutes a gross violation of Security Council resolution 1244. Russia urged  the US Security Council to protect the Serbs.

Representatives of Malta expressed concern over Kosovo gov decision to suspend dinar.  He reiterated that “unilateral actions implemented without due notification and consultation, especially actions that directly affect ethnic minorities only serve to destabilize the situation in the region and increase the risk of violence.”

UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, speaking on behalf of the United States, encountered difficulty in correctly pronouncing the names of Vucic and Kurti. The US Ambassador to the UN reiterated the commitment of the United States to peace, stability, and the peacekeeping mission of KFOR in Kosovo. 

Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US Representative to the United Nations

United States expressed deep concern over “uncoordinated actions” of Kosovo government. 

“The decision was taken without adequate preparation or consultation with the local population, ” made it clear. “We once again call for enforcement of this plan to be immediately postponed until satisfactory procedures in line with European standards and practices of good governance are in place, and the affected population has been sufficiently educated on the process this transition will follow,” Ambassador Thomas-Greenfield stated.

In addition to suspension of dinar, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, referred to  “law enforcement operations at the offices of the Serbia-supported institutions in municipalities in western Kosovo, and the NGO Center For Peace and Tolerance in Pristina.”

The United States views these actions “inconsistent with Kosovo’s commitment to work through the EU-facilitated Dialogue to address issues that affect the welfare of the Serb minority community. And they undermine the path to normalization between Kosovo and Serbia.”

The UK stated that the Kosovo government’s decision to suspend the dinar has demonstrated a lack of sufficient consideration for its potential impact on the Serbian minority community in Kosovo. China said that ethnic antagonism against the Serbs by the Kosovo government is concerning and laid out an expectation for Kurti to cease and desist from any move that exacerbates the situation.

As other countries weighed in, it was clear from the look on Albin Kurti’s face that he had not read the room well.

Gone are the days of unilateral narratives

The Serbian President then asked to speak again to respond to what has been said during disucssion. He reiterated that Serbia “will do everything to keep peace and stability.” He noted that in his opening address, he spoke with facts and arguments, unlike Kurti, who resorted to ad hominem attacks. Addressing accusations that Serbia supports money laundering, he stated, “It was mentioned here that Serbs brings sacks of money through the administrative line. ‘You know who does it,’ “said Vucic. He underscored that it is not the Serbs but the authorized British company, Henderson. “The Brits, Henderson company, they transfer our money to Kosovo, just to showcase how transparent we are,” he said.

He also noted that no one mentioned the Serbian victims during the session and the Serbian children that were killed in Kosovo.

The Serbian President told the member sates that “the only territorial integrity that has been violated is Serbia’s. UN Charter and UN Resolution 1244.”

In response to allegations by Kurti that Serbia is an extension of Russia, he said, “I am saying to all of you, Serbia is an independent, sovereign, freedom-loving country. We are not puppets of anyone, and that will remain so.”

What happened today in the chambers of the UN Security Council, marks a moment of profound significance for Serbia. Gone are the days of unilateral narratives dominating the discourse; today, a shift in international understanding was palpably evident.

The Serbian President, recognizing the pivotal role of transparent dialogue in diplomacy, seized the opportunity to address the global stage. The needs and voices of ethnic Serbs in Kosovo echoed across the UN National Security Council, capturing the undivided attention of the international community.

With Kurti’s back firmly pressed against the wall, the stark reality dawns upon him: there is nowhere else to go but to backtrack. The UN Security Council warning has been shot.

READ ALSO

Ksenija Pavlovic is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of the Pavlovic Today, The Chief White House Correspondent. Pavlovic was a Teaching Fellow and Doctoral Fellow in the Political Science department at...

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *