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Students Solidarity Trust (SST) on International Students Day
Students Solidarity Trust
November 16, 2007

The Students Solidarity Trust (SST) joins the Zimbabwe National Students Union (ZINASU), Students Christian Movement of Zimbabwe (SCMZ), National Movement of Catholic Students (NMCS) and the International Student Community at large in commemorating the International Students day.

While other students in other country are able to commemorate this day amidst pomp and fanfare, it is unfortunate that this day, and the objective conditions for students in Zimbabwe, demand that this be a day of critical reflection by the students movement on the state of our nation and the education sector which is now a far cry from what it used to be in post independent Zimbabwe up to the late 90's.

In the spirit of the founding commemoration of International Students Day in 1941, which marked the anniversary of the 1939 Nazi storming of the University of Prague after demonstrations against the killing of Jan Opletal and the occupation of Czechoslovakia, and the execution of nine student leaders, together with over 1200 students sent to concentration camps, and the closing of all Czechoslovakian universities and colleges, this years commemoration also marks the abuse and victimization of student activists to similarly shocking proportions, with over 1487 student activists having been either unjustly arrested or detained, suspended or expelled this year alone. The day also allows us to remember the brutal murders of Batanai Hadzidzi on the 9th of April 2001; Lameck Chemvura on the 24th of November the same year, and the hundreds of students who have lost their academic lives because of their pursuit and dedication to the respect of students and academic rights, the right to education and the existence of a just and fair society in Zimbabwe.

The Student Solidarity Trust cherishes a free state where academic freedoms are not only recognized but respected, and urges the government of Zimbabwe to begin appreciating the empowering right that education is and make it a central component of our countries developmental drive. In the same vein the SST urges the government and Tertiary education authorities to desist from unwarranted victimization of student's activists, keeping in mind that there cannot be wholesale enjoyment of the right to education without the appreciation and respect of students and academic rights.

Visit the Students Solidarity Trust fact sheet

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