Leaders of Serbia and Kosovo spar at the UN over the latter’s ban of the Serbian dinar

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Serbia’s president has accused Kosovo’s government at a heated U.N. meeting of banning the use of the Serbian currency in areas where minority Serbs live in Kosovo with the ultimate goal of making living conditions unbearable for them and expelling them. Kosovo’s prime minister retorted that claims his country was conducting an ethnic cleansing of Serbs are “a lie” and said banning the dinar and imposing the euro would prevent criminal groups in Kosovo from receiving illegal cash. Kosovo was a province of Serbia but declared independence in 2008 after a bitter war. Belgrade, which asked for Thursday’s emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council, has not recognized Kosovo’s independence.