St. Egidio

Helps Albanian Students in Kosovo Return to School.

he Community of St. Egidio--with a grant from the U.S. Institute of Peace--recently helped bring about an agreement that would enable Albanian schoolchildren to return to school in Kosovo, a predominantly Albanian enclave in the Republic of Serbia. Albanians--who comprise 90 percent of Kosovo's population--withdrew from the schools in 1989 when the Serbian government initiated mass firings of Albanian teachers from grade school through the university. Albanian students have attended alternative schools since the school boycott began.

The agreement to normalize the school system--signed by Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic and Kosovo's Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova on September 1--was supported by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, general ecclesiastical assistant of St. Egidio. Paglia and other community members facilitated dialogue and the exchange of informational materials between Serb and Albanian representatives during a series of colloquia organized to discuss and resolve the school issue.

St. Egidio, headquartered in Rome, is a worldwide assembly of Christian communities involved in international conflict resolution activities and track-two diplomacy. Community members have facilitated conflict resolution in Mozambique, Algeria, and Guatemala. Since 1991, they have provided humanitarian aid and offered health and education programs in the Balkans.

Andrea Bartoli, the community's liaison officer in New York City, said the community is happy to have assisted the parties in negotiating the Kosovo school agreement and "pledges its resources to help with the implementation."

Conflict erupted in Kosovo after the breakup of the former Yugoslavia, because its Albanian population did not want to become a province of Serbia. In response to strikes and street protests in 1989, Milosovic declared a state of emergency in the province and sent in federal troops, which are still deployed there. © 1996 United States Institute of Peace