Radical Education discussing alternative education with Mehmet Behluli and Dren Maliqi of the School of Missing Identity and Rizoma / Prishtina, Kosovo

Radical Education (R.E.): What was the context in which the School of Missing Identity was initiated?

Mehmet Behluli (M.B.): We must look at the former Yugoslav territory in its cultural and also in its political meaning. As you know, Kosovo was very underdeveloped in that context and it was a society with a strong patriarchal way of thinking, as well as a closed one. In fact, only Kosovo was a big problem as regards integration into that Yugoslav society. Probably also because of the language, as our language is completely different from the other, Slavic, languages.

Kosovo set on path to independence as envoy sketches out final chapter in Balkan conflict

· Serbia rejects blueprint as violation of sovereignty
· Russia opposes UN vote to create EU protectorate

Ian Traynor, Europe editor
Saturday February 3, 2007
The Guardian

A Kosovo Albanian stands behind the Albanian national flag at a market in Pristina Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP-Getty

The majority Albanian province of Kosovo was put on the path to independent statehood yesterday by an international blueprint that redraws the map of the Balkans and effectively strips Serbia of sovereignty over a region it regards as its Jerusalem.
The plan was presented to and rejected by Serbian leaders in Belgrade and also given to the ethnic Albanian Kosovo leadership in Pristina by Martti Ahtisaari, the former Finnish president who has spent the past year as a special UN envoy crafting the settlement. "It's a compromise proposal," Mr Ahtisaari said, pointing out the plan had to be endorsed by the UN security council before it could be implemented. The aim was "a future Kosovo that is viable, sustainable and stable".

Serbs go to polls with rivals neck and neck

Ian Traynor, Europe editor
Friday January 19, 2007
Guardian Unlimited
Serbia goes to the polls on Sunday for a crucial election that could return the pivotal Balkan state to nationalist instability or open up better prospects of integration with the EU and the west. Coming on top of war, revolution, isolation and assassination during the past decade, the ballot is seen as the most important since the fall of Slobodan Milosevic’s regime in 2000.

The election is also overshadowed by the fate of its southern province of Kosovo. Within weeks of Sunday’s poll, the international community is expected to impose a form of independence on the Albanian-majority province, redrawing Serbia’s borders in the final act of the disintegration of Yugoslavia.