NEAR Newsletter June 2006
Welcome to the NEAR Newsletter. In this edition you will find our most recent Action Alerts and also an ‘Academic Freedom in the Media’ section, listing news by country (June 2006). Any comments and suggestions about the content and layout of the newsletter will be gratefully received at roisin.joyce@nearinternational.org.
NEAR Action Alerts *Taken from the NEAR website
Chile: 700 Students Arrested After Violent Protests
News agencies inform that in Chile more than 700 students have been arrested in the capital, Santiago, and hundreds of schools across the country have been closed as some 500,000 pupils staged a strike, pressing for education reforms. Protests began several weeks ago when students took over several schools in Santiago, and their strike has now spread nationwide with many pupils staying in school but refusing to attend lessons.
Guinea: Ten Dead in Clashes Between Students and Police
Dr. Taye was arrested in 1996 on fabricated charges of terrorism and conspiracy to assassinate government officials. A total of ten people have died in clashes between secondary school students and police in Guinea. The students were protesting over a strike which has led to the suspension of their exams. This is not the first time that there is a tough crackdown on students protest in the country (see Related NEAR Alerts).
Iraq: "Assassins are targeting university professors in a coordinated liquidation process"
Nahi Yousif Yaseen, director general of the Iraqi Center for Cancer and Medical Genetics Research in Baghdad states: "We feel there's a campaign to kill every scientist in Iraq”. Since March 2003 hundreds of academics have been killed in Iraq. It was reported (see related NEAR Alerts) that 296 members of education staff were killed in 2005 alone.
Burma (Myanmar): Student Sentenced to 19 years for Poem
Zeya Aung, a student from Pegu University, has received a sentence of 19 years in prison for publishing “Dawn Mann” (‘The fighting spirit of the peacock’) a book of poems deemed as ‘anti-government’. The sentence was handed out by the criminal court of Pegu (north of the capital Rangoon) on the 9 June 2006.
** Please continue to send us any relevant cases involving threats to academic freedom and education rights, for potential alerts.
The Network for Education and Academic Rights (NEAR) is a membership-based, non-governmental organisation which facilitates international collaboration between organisations active in issues of academic freedom and educational rights, and committed to promoting an understanding of, and respect for, the values enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
For more information about NEAR, please visit our website at www.nearinternational.org
For further information please contact:-
Roisin Joyce
Deputy Director
roisin.joyce@nearinternational.org