My Travels To Kosovo

By Dr. Warren Coats

Post-World War II Yugoslavia consisted of the federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,
Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Though its residents were predominantly
Albanian, Kosovo was a province of Serbia. During part of its post-WWII history, Kosovo was
relatively autonomous within Serbia, while part of the time it was ruled directly by Serbia.
Frictions between Albanian and Serbian Kosovars escalated in the 1990s into armed conflict,
which ended only with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) bombing of Serbian
Army forces in Kosovo and Serbia proper from March 24 to June 10, 1999.
Following the June 10 end to the fighting, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
took over the governance of a ruined Kosovo. Among the normal needs to be restored most
urgently (food, water, electricity, etc.), was the ability to pay for things. Kosovo's banks were
closed, and its financial and monetary connection with Belgrade and the rest of the world was
not functioning. There was an urgent need to revive Kosovo's ability to make payments while
also determining what sort of financial systems to build for a future, more integrated with the
rest of Europe.
If only by using it, Kosovars themselves had answered what currency they wished to
use-the German mark (DM). But arrangements were urgently needed for how to acquire and
maintain DM banknotes and coins, and to adjust the procedures of banks and other money
handlers to the use and safekeeping of DM, rather than the Serbian dinars previously supplied
by the National Bank of Serbia.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) joined with the United Nations, the World Bank,
the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and other international
organizations to provide the needed emergency humanitarian assistance and to help in the
rebuilding of a potentially transformed economy.
This book documents the work of the IMF teams lead by Warren Coats to revive and
transform Kosovo's monetary system and some of the challenges and adventures they
encountered in the proce

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0CCCJJBQ6
• ISBN13: 9798853038233
• Release Date: July 2023
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 6.0" x 9.0"