Niger Government Bans Student Protests

Government officials in Niger have blocked demonstrations that were scheduled to be held last week by students demanding the reopening of the University of Niamey.

Amadou Lawel, the minister of higher education, said the demonstrations had been banned for security reasons. However, the decision was denounced by a coalition of 12 opposition parties in Niger as “an autocratic misuse of power by the government” of the West African nation.

Police officers, reinforced by military troops, were deployed last week at the parliament buildings in the capital, Niamey, where the protest was to have taken place. Others surrounded key government offices and patrolled the city streets. Rumors were rife that opposition political activists would participate in the student demonstrations.

This was the third time in two months that the government of President Tandja Mamadou had banned demonstrations calling for the university’s opening.

The university, the only one in Niger, was closed in February, after students boycotted classes to demand more aid, new classrooms, and better living conditions.

When the students refused to end the boycott, the university was closed and the police stormed the campus to enforce the closure. About 50 students and riot policemen were seriously wounded as they battled each other with tear gas, nightsticks, Molotov cocktails, bows and arrows, and catapults.

http://chronicle.com Section: International Page: A51