University clashes leave four dead

Kabul University reopened on Wednesday following two days of violence between students and police in the Afghan capital. As many as four people were killed and scores injured after students took to the streets to protest against inadequate facilities at the university. "Conditions at the university are poor, and this was the reaction," Nangialai Barakzai, a 21-year-old literature student told IRIN. "Students are increasingly becoming frustrated at the lack of resources here - particularly in the dormitories, where there is no electricity or water." According to witnesses, the clashes began on Monday when students attempted to march on the office of President Hamid Karzai to voice their grievances. On their way into thecentre of the city, about 1,000 students vandalised cars and shops before security forces wielding batons and firing into the air succeeded in dispersing them. On Tuesday, students again clashed with security forces over what protestors described as a heavy misuse of force the previous day. Meanwhile, reaction to the shootings has been swift, and though it remains unclear how they occurred, students interviewed by IRIN placed the blame firmly on the police. "They completely overreacted," Rafi Saghry, a 23-year-old engineering student, said. "We don’t have qualified police officers in Kabul," Mas'ud Mujiburahman, a journalism student, also 23 years old, added. "The police are simply not well trained." The Aghan government has pledged to improve student conditions and look into allegations of police brutality and overreaction. Like other students, he said living conditions at the university had sparked the protests, but conceded that the violence had soon taken on a life of its own. "We don’t really know who was behind it. In a very short time, the number of protestors increased substantially. How this happened I don’t know," he explained. But according to Abdul Basir Salange, Kabul's general security commander, there was more to this protest than met the eye. He said he believed that the slogans of some of the students indicated that there had been Al-Qaeda and Taliban elements within the group, whose sole aim was to destabilise the current government. Asserting that firing by police had been provoked, he told IRIN that it had happened after one student had attempted to grab a police officer's gun, but maintained that only two people had died as a result. Asked if he felt the police had overreacted, he dismissed the suggestion, accusing the United Nations of promising but then failing to provide the students with electricity and water. "That’s why we have these problems with these students," he said. Adding a voice of moderation, Shoaib Sharifi, coeditor of the English-language daily Kabul Times, told IRIN that although he did not support such protests, he firmly believed that people should be entitled to express their opinions peacefully. "While we are gradually proceeding towards a more democratic society, I hope that what has happened today will be a lesson as to how police should properly act where there is freedom of expression," he said. "The newly established and internationally trained police force must recognise this." According to the Kabul Times, during the reign of the former king, Muhammad Zahir Shah, in 1960, more than 10 Kabul University students were killed when they tried to force their way into parliament, while in 1978, a protest against Soviet occupation by students at the all-girls Aisha Durani High School resulted in one death. During the recent reign of the Taliban, at least two students died at Nangarhar University after protesters staged a demonstration against poor food and facilities there.