Thousands rallied Monday in northern Kosovo to protest a government ban that prohibits the use of the Serbian dinar currency in places where the country's minority Serb population lives. The decision has angered both Kosovo Serbs and Serbia.
The ban, which requires that the euro be used instead, is the latest spat in ongoing tensions between Serbia and Kosovo, a former Serbian province. Kosovo banned banks and other financial institutions from using the dinar on February 1.
Participants in Monday's rally in Mitrovica, a divided northern Kosovo town, called the decision to abolish the dinar discriminatory and a violation of the rights of the minority population. The dinar is used to pay pensions and salaries in Serbian-run institutions, such as hospitals and schools. An association of Kosovo Serb pensioners organized the protest action.
"To prevent us from withdrawing the pensions we earned literally means that they're taking a piece of bread from us; they're cutting off our lives," pensioner Dusanka Djorovic told the crowd while speaking from an improvised stage during the protest.
The demonstrators urged the international community to pressure Kosovo's government to reverse the ban. This comes after the Serbian and Kosovo leaders quarreled about the issue in a National Security Council meeting last week after Serbia accused the Kosovo government of physically blocking a shipment of dinars set to pay salaries, pensions, social benefits and other payments.
Kosovo's Prime Minister Albin Kurti dismissed criticism of the decision in a message to the Kosovo Serbs and maintained that the ban was to stop illegal money flow and "not stop Serbia from financially assisting the citizens of Kosovo's Serb community."
"Kosovo did not stop the dinar, or the dollar, pound, or Swiss franc," said Kurti. "The only change from February 1 is that the cash cannot cross the border in sacks ... but should come through bank accounts and (be) withdrawn in euros."
Kosovo's Serb community has continued to use the dinar since the end of the war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo.
The European Union and United States have expressed concern that the conflict over the dinar ban could heighten tensions in the volatile region.
Some information for this report was provided by the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.