Assignment: Kosovo - euro or bust?

The Documentary Podcast

BBC

Society & Culture, Documentary, Personal Journals

4.3 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 30 April 2024

⏱️ 27 minutes

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Summary

It's a quarter of a century since Kosovo emerged from a brutal war, one which pitted local ethnic Albanians against Serbs. Twenty-five years on, the government in Pristina is pressing ahead with reforms that could reinforce its separation from Serbia. They include banning the use of Serb dinars and curbing the import of things like Serb medicines. Pristina says the moves are needed to curb illegality and tax-evasion. But they have brought widespread complaints from local Serbs who feel victimised. Is the government justified in claiming there is a rising risk of violence, or are the restrictions themselves making this more likely?

Transcript

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0:00.0	A rather well-mannered crowd on the streets of North Mitrovica.
0:09.0	It's the Serb half of a
0:15.0	serve movements move to outlaw the use of their favored currency, the Serb-Dinar, and those not protesting
0:27.2	are queuing for as much cash as they're allowed to withdraw from the city's banks. She has to come over here every day to withdraw her money.
0:37.0	She has to come over here every day to withdraw her money, money from her account.
0:41.0	Is it enough for your family? Of course not.
0:45.0	We are old people and we face these cues every day just to withdraw a few euros. It's really very difficult right now.
0:55.8	I honestly I was born here I do not remember economically and socially that it was
1:01.3	more difficult than right now. It's chaos. It's chaos. It really is, yes.
1:07.0	Welcome to the documentary from the BBC World Service. I'm Ed Butler and in assignment this week I'm going to be looking at what lies behind the
1:15.2	chaos that this woman's describing.
1:18.2	How bad really is it for a Kosovo Serb population that feels caught in the middle of a wider decades old argument, one that continues
1:27.2	to haunt this corner of the Balkans. For most of Kosovo's 2 million or so, mostly Muslim ethnic Albanian inhabitants,
1:38.6	the future nowadays points north and westwards towards the European Union.
1:43.4	Kosovo's economy is one of the poorest in Europe and it depends heavily on money
1:48.1	sent home from expats living in countries like Switzerland and Germany.
1:53.0	The ambition from the majority here is to join the EU.
1:57.0	But while they look forward, no one here is forgetting the countries passed either.
2:03.0	It was back in the 1990s,
2:08.0	just as the former communist state of Yugoslavia governed from Belgrade had begun to
2:15.8	disintegrate that Kosovo's Albanians began pushing for independence. The Yugoslav president,
2:22.4	Serbian strongman Slobdan Molossovitch, responded with brutal force.
	...

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