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By Muhammad Elosta
Tripoli, 21 November 2013
Despite a personal appeal from the prime minister, Tripoli university students who have been on strike . . .[restrict]for the past week, have vowed to continue their protest until the last armed militiaman leaves the capital. The strike began after ten students from the university were reportedly among the dead at the Gharghour massacre.
Zeidan went yesterday with other ministers to meet the university’s student union to ask that all studies be resumed. The student strike has been described by government sources as “an act of civil disobedience”. However, the prime minister’s initiative met with a frosty response.
Mohamed Kameshi, head of student union’s engineering department told the Libya Herald: “Colleges should not re-open until the demands of the students are met. How can education prosper under these current circumstances? University students will not resume studies until all the militias in Tripoli return home”.
Kameshi said that the students planned a further demonstration in Jamhurriah Street on Saturday. He explained that the students’ union had decided to mount this separate protest rather than support the wider demonstration called for tomorrow.
As with a strike earlier this year to protest poor security on the campus, not all students have proved happy to take part in the strike and are annoyed that university is shut down.
Nosaiba Drera, a medical student said “I respect the mourning for students who lost their lives during the Gharghour protest, but I don’t think that should not interfere with our studies. Education should always take priority”. [/restrict]
