Sixty university students have been jailed in clashes with Zimbabwe
riot police during rolling demonstrations that started last week
demanding the expulsion from Hong Kong of 20-year-old Bona Mugabe. The
students were also protesting against mounting economic hardship, and
what they called the "dollarisation of education".
Police have fired tear gas during the protests that started on February
3 to prevent students from leaving their campus, but hundreds have
breached the blockade and marched through downtown Harare.
"Why is Bona not attending Lupane University or Midlands State
[University]?" said Clever Bere, president of the Zimbabwe National
Students Union, ZINASU. "ZINASU is urging the University of Hong Kong
to deport Bona Mugabe who is pursuing her studies there. She must come
back home and face the same conditions that fellow Zimbabweans are
facing in these difficult times."
A 22-year-old student is in the intensive care unit after being injured
during clashes at the University ofZimbabwe’s main campus in Harare. A
police spokesman said the student was trampled, but a student spokesman
put the injuries down to police violence. He said about 30 students
have received medical treatment this week.
"We are incensed by the high level of police brutality," the student spokesman said.
A statement from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights, ZLHR, said,
"ZLHR is disgusted by the continued use of violence by the police force
against defenceless citizens and the arbitrary arrests, detention and
subsequent release of detainees without charge, meant simply to harass
students and prevent them from exercising their fundamental right to
assembly and expression."
Campus protests began early last week, when rioting students reportedly
stoned cars in a rampage triggered by a hike in tuition to 1,200 US
dollars for state university students doing arts, humanities and social
sciences; 1,400 dollars for those in science and technology faculties;
and 1,800 dollars for those studying medicine and veterinary science.
Previously tuition was paid for in Zimbabwe dollars.
Student leaders said their classmates were further angered by
subsequent demand for an extra 400 dollars in exam fees, supposed to be
paid by 12 noon on February 11.
Details that the daughter of the controversial Zimbabwean ruler was
studying in Hong Kong emerged after her 43-year-old mother, Grace,
allegedly assaulted freelance photographer Richard Jones as he took
pictures of her shopping in Tsim Sha Tsui in January while on holiday.
Angry students, most of them children of poor peasants, and poorly paid
teachers, policemen, soldiers and bank workers immediately accused
Mugabe of being impervious to the suffering caused by the total
economic collapse he had caused. They charged he was sending his
children to foreign universities while tertiary institutions in his
country were collapsing.
Zimbabwe’s economy is crumbling and students have complained for
several months of delays in receiving their allowances from the
cash-strapped education ministry. They have also protested against the
rising costs of food, accommodation and books. Most of the lecturers
have stayed away because of poor remuneration and students have had to
subsidise the academics to get them to continue teaching.
The news of Mugabe's daughter's enrolment at the University of Hong
Kong broke at the same time as the rise in student fees was announced.
Students immediately mounted an online media campaign to pressure the
Hong Kong administration to deport the president’s daughter back to
Zimbabwe.
Bona Mugabe, whose father and close associates are banned from entering
the United States and the European Union, began studying in Hong Kong
under an assumed name last autumn.
Mugabe and his associates are turning to Asian universities for their
children’s education followingAustralia’s decision to deport eight
youngsters in 2007 whose fathers were accused of propping up the Mugabe
government. The United States has said five students involved in
"anti-democratic" activities would be deported, but has not said when
or given their names.
Zimbabwean newspapers are now awash with advertisements offering students places at Asian universities, mostly in Malaysia.
The London website ZimDaily, run by expat journalists from banned
Zimbabwean newspapers, has been co-ordinating the campaign to have the
president’s daughter deported.
The media campaign has already paid some dividends, given the deportation by Australia of children of the ruling party's elites.
However, Beijing is a different kettle of fish. The Chinese government
enjoys warm diplomatic ties with the Mugabe administration and is
likely to reject calls to send the president's daughter home, although
some rights activists have questioned whether she should be allowed to
stay.
Hong Kong Human Rights monitor director Law Yuk-kai said, "A child who
has not done anything wrong should not be asked to take the burden of
the wrongs of their parents. [But] if the money she is spending was
siphoned off ordinary people, there is a problem. Just like other
members of the international community, Hong Kong should do its part in
imposing sanctions."
The aim of the media campaign is to expose the hypocrisy of Mugabe.
"If you actually try to look at it from a moral point of view one can
easily dismiss the campaign and say we are targeting the wrong people,"
Maiswa said. "So what we are saying here is there are many ways of
applying pressure on the regime. One of the ways is obviously targeting
the beneficiaries of Mugabe’s rule and in this case the kids; these are
people who are benefiting from what is happening in Zimbabwe."
The Hong Kong government said in a statement it had no comment.
Mugabe, who turns 85 on February 21, has ruled Zimbabwe since its
independence from Britain in 1980. He has been accused of overseeing
the country’s economic collapse. His policies have seen schools shut,
and the health sector collapsing, leading to a cholera outbreak that
has killed more than 3,000. Millions of Zimbabweans – more than half
the population – are dependent on international food aid.
On February 13, Mugabe swore into office an inclusive government comprising members of his party and the opposition.
The new administration has prioritised the rescuscitation of the
education sector. The education ministry has gone to the Arthur
Mutambara faction of the Movement for Democratic Change, but the higher
and tertiary ministry has been kept by ZANU-PF.IWPR