13 DECEMBER 2001
US Army sells euro to Kosovars
BY MARTIN FLETCHER
US ARMY psychologists are helping the European Union to achieve a smooth
transition to the euro in Kosovo.
Members of the 4th Psychological Operations Group are encouraging ethnic
Albanians and Serbs to embrace the single currency, being adopted by the
UN-administered Yugoslav province on January 1.
The previous tasks of the group’s information warriors have included dropping
anti-Taleban leaflets over Afghanistan, warning Iraqi troops of imminent
death during the Gulf War and playing rock music to persuade Manuel Noriega
to surrender during the US invasion of Panama in 1989. The group also sought
to persuade Kosovans to vote in elections last month.
Kosovo ditched the Yugoslav dinar for the German mark after the 1999 war.
The US military is anxious to avoid any upheaval that could jeopardise the
province’s fragile peace and prevent the 5,000 US peacekeeping troops from
going home. One concern is that the Serb minority will refuse to exchange
marks for euros at Albanian-run banks.
“A stable environment in Kosovo is in everyone’s interests, particularly
those of the military forces,” Lieutenant-Colonel Carl Ayers, commander of
the group’s 9th Psychological Operations Battalion, said. He has 30 men talking
to people across eastern Kosovo about the euro and distributing to radio
stations CDs with pro-euro messages between music tracks.