Total disruption at university

Belgrade, Thursday -- The dean of Belgrade University's Faculty of Philosophy has suspended all faculty activities and facilities tomorrow, the faculty's crisis headquarters announced today. "The dean was not interested in listening to the students and instead obeyed his orders from the same people who had ordered the beating of students and citizens," said the headquarters in a statement this morning. More than six hundred students and academic staff in the faculty have signed a petition.

Students at the Belgrade University Law Faculty today were banned from entering the building. The Ministry of Education has posted notices on bulletin boards throughout the school announcing that students would be permitted to enter the building only with faculty identification and that today would be the last day of teaching in the school.

Protesting law students finished their march in front of the Mechanical Engineering Faculty in support of students there who have gone on strike. The march proceeded without incident except for the seizure of a camera from a TV Mreza crew by a security guard at the Mechanical Engineering Faculty.

A group of 150 students from the Belgrade University Faculty of Civil Engineering yesterday announced that they would go on strike and called on other students to join them. The strike was motivated by the beating of students at the Faculty of Architecture and the deployment of security guards at the entrance of their building.

Students at the Belgrade University Mathematics Faculty have agreed to continue striking. The students have not yet decided whether to organise lectures themselves or to cancel classes. The current University Act prohibits teaching staff from joining student actions and academics are still considering what modes of protest are available to them.

Source: B92

---

Back to Archive | Back to Kosov@ Crisis