US official says Kosovo’s ban on dinar use may spark a ‘humanitarian issue’ for ethnic Serbs

By FLORENT BAJRAMI and LLAZAR SEMINI
Associated Press

PRISTINA, Kosovo (AP) — A senior U.S. official has said he was “very concerned” that Kosovo’s decision to ban the use of Serbian dinar in the north could cause “an emerging humanitarian issue” for the ethnic Serb minority. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Gabriel Escobar on Thursday met with Kosovar Prime Minister Albin Kurti on his second day of the visit to the country in the latest American effort to restart the talks between Kosovo and Serbia to normalize their ties. The ban from using the Serbian currency, the dinar, was “an emerging humanitarian issue that we need to address immediately,” said Escobar as it “has caused some real hardship for some of the citizens of this country.”