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Zaire Students
Students of the universities and other institutes of
higher
education have been politically active and influential
since
independence. At first, their political clout derived from
their
elite status (university training virtually guaranteed
access to
the elite). In subsequent years, with the expansion of
university
education, the number of students increased rapidly,
outstripping
employment opportunities.
Until 1968 there was a student union at each of the
country's
three universities and a national union, representing the
three
campuses as well as students overseas. By far the most
influential
organizations were the General Union of Congolese Students
(Union
Générale des Étudiants Congolais--UGEC) and the General
Association
of Lovanium Students (Association Générale des Étudiants
de
Lovanium--AGEL). The UGEC, whose leadership advocated
"scientific
socialism," was ambivalent regarding Mobutu. It originally
supported him out of dislike for Moïse Tshombe and because
of
Mobutu's symbolically important gestures, such as the
nationalization of the Upper Katanga Mining Union (Union
Minière du
Haut Katanga--UMHK) and the naming of Patrice Lumumba as
"National
Hero." Some UGEC leaders in fact joined the presidential
staff.
However, many student activists viewed the outcome of the
UMHK
conflict as a surrender, in that Mobutu ultimately was
forced to
reimburse many of the original owners, and found the
Mobutu
government too closely tied to the United States.
In 1968 UGEC was banned from Congolese universities by
government order, and the youth wing of the MPR became the
only
officially recognized student organization. However, the
student
JMPR sections were allowed a degree of freedom not
available in all
party structures, in that they elected their officers.
These
elections generally pitted candidates of ethno-regional
coalitions
against each other, a key question being which blocks
would align
themselves with the favored students of Équateur, Mobutu's
home
region.
Over the years, student discontent continued to be
expressed in
manifestos, strikes, and demonstrations. There was a
serious
outbreak on June 4, 1969, which led to a clash between
Lovanium
students and security forces in which about thirty
students were
killed; it was commemorated in 1971 and 1977 by protest
marches.
As the Second Republic drew to an end, students again
were in
the forefront of opposition to the regime. In February
1989,
thousands of students took to the streets of Kinshasa, in
reaction
to the imposition of IMF-sponsored austerity measures
including
elimination of student bus services and 80 percent hikes
in tuition
fees. The government attempted, unsuccessfully, to blame
the unrest
on the illegal opposition party, UDPS.
On April 6, 1990, university and high school students
demonstrated on Kinshasa's Avenue de la Victoire and set
several
vehicles on fire. Far from calming the students, Mobutu's
April 24
speech stirred them up even further. On May 7, a group of
university students stopped a bus carrying several members
of
parliament, abused them, and cut the hair of some of them.
Further
demonstrations occurred in Kinshasa the following day,
especially
on campus. On May 9, the government announced a series of
measures
to deal with the wave of student unrest: expulsion of all
students
guilty of vandalism, introduction of legal sanctions
against the
same students, and organization of elections at all
institutions of
higher learning to choose student representatives.
Two days later, students at the University of
Lubumbashi took
violent action against alleged government spies in their
midst. In
response, security forces surrounded the campus and killed
a large
number of students (up to 100 according to some reports)
after
separating and sparing those from Équateur. This incident
and the
refusal of the government to allow an inquiry into it
resulted in
the cutoff of most international aid to Zaire.
Data as of December 1993
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