Zimbabwe
Peace prize for Zimbabwean students' union

afrol News, 28 January - The Zimbabwe National Student Union (ZINASU) today was awarded a Norwegian students' peace prize for its "efforts to promote democracy and human rights in Zimbabwe." The prestigious Student Peace Prize, which is awarded every second year, includes an award of Norwegian kroner 50,000 (US$ 7,250).

ZINASU was awarded the prize for its fight for students' rights, the Oslo-based committee today announced. The nine-member committee includes Norway's ex-Foreign Minister Thorvald Stoltenberg and representatives of the country's leading student organisations. 

The committee's decision was based on ZINASU's active protests against "forced education in patriotic issues that were obliged by the regime." ZINASU also had protested privatisation of student quarters and canteens and government's "dramatic increase of university fees by 3000 percent." 

The committee further emphasised that ZINASU had fought for the right of ordinary students to still be able to access higher grade education and "that the universities still be an arena of free discussion and opinion-making." Zimbabwean student also had led the fight for freedom of expression and the fight against AIDS.

Thus, "ZINASU has been noted as a very important player in the fight against the repressive regime of President [Robert] Mugabe," the official reasoning for awarding the prize said. "They have demonstrated that student politics hardly can be divided from national political challenges, and have done their work on this reasoning."

According to the Norwegian students' committee, Zimbabwean student have been victims of increasingly harsh government persecution, "but have continued their struggle risking the own lives and health." The award was to appreciate their "admirable" dedication for fellow students and "the population at large."

Tinashe Chimedza, ZINASU Secretary-General, agrees there is a common struggle for Zimbabwean students and society at large. "As members of a society, we have a direct responsibility to take care of society at large; not only of our selves," he told the Norwegian committee. "Taking on this responsibility involves several serious consequences for the activists of the organisation," the student leader however adds.

ZINASU remains one of the few civil society organisations of size managing to curb undermining efforts by the Harare regime. During increased government repression, the students' union has taken a clearer focus on human rights issues. "ZINASU is a dynamic organisation that may play an important part in the further struggle for democracy," Norwegian students note.

The Norwegian committee said it believed the award would "be an encouragement and a challenge to [Zimbabwean] student to continue this struggle, and at the same time being an appreciation of the work that has already been done."

Although the union's fight for general human rights in Zimbabwe has been given much attention, ZINASU also has to defend its members against enhanced government control of the universities. "Robert Mugabe is both headmaster of all our universities and President of our country," explains Itai Zimunya, the union's Vice-President. "He controls everything, and we want to push for his departure."

According to Mr Zimunya, Zimbabwean barely can afford to study nowadays, students not being even able to afford one meal a day. He fears that government will push even harder to crush ZINASU's resistance. "Government has embarked on a new strategy to crush us," he says. "If we are demonstrating or protesting something, they send in 'war veterans' and mobs to beat us up."

The Norwegian Student Peace Prize is awarded every second year and "goes to a student or a student organisation that has done a particular effort for democracy and human rights." With this award, Norwegian students wish to give support and attention to students that have done a particular effort for these important rights, and highlight the role of students in peace processes worldwide.

The prize-winner receives kroner 50,000, and is invited to Norway to receive the prize, the committee informs. "But equally important," Zimbabwean students were to visit Norwegian colleagues in several university and college towns. "This way, he will get a chance to present [their] case to Norwegian students, and draw attention to the conflict in question."

Sources: Based on ISFIT, Norwegian Students' International Assistance Fund and afrol archives

 

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