Organization: Penn State University
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 10:40:30 EDT
From: <AAA5@psuvm.psu.edu> (Akin Akioye)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Russian Police Beat African Students


News Story from _The Philadelphia Inquirer_, Aug. 13 1992
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RUSSIAN POLICE BEAT AFRICAN STUDENTS by Elizabeth Shogren (Los Angeles Times)
--
Moscow-- African students at Russia's Patrice Lumumba University of Friendship
of Peoples were severely beaten by riot police yesterday during a demonstration
protesting the slaying of a student from Zimbabwe by a Russian policeman. The
killing of the 25-year-old history student and the attack on peaceful
demonstrators by baton-waving helmeted police was proof, the students say, of
the systematic abuse they face in Moscow because of their color.
--
One policeman yelled out, "I will kill you, swine!" as about two dozen police
in riot gear and several plainsclothesmen were seen attacking the
demonstrators. The protesters wer carrying hand-printed signs bearing slogans
such as "We Need Police Protection, Not Police Murderers."  The policemen
chased the fleeing students and surrounded several of them, then kicking them
in the groin and beating them with fists and rubber truncheons. Several of the
policemen were seen laughing.
--
"It's pure racism," said Lateef Ogboye, 33, a student from Nigeria. "These
so-called policemen treat us like scum. These brutal police beatings are daily
occurences in our campus life. You are damn lucky if you manage to get away
with just being called a black bastard or some other dirty name."
--
Police officers said the students provoked the attack by interrupting traffic
with their march. Students said they were trying to draw attention to the killi
g of Chimusoro, 25, on Tuesday. They fear that the policeman who shot him will
not be brought to justice.
--
"We were trying to organize something peaceful and something short," Eluyemi to
ld the Associated Press. "But what they've done is come out and
 start beating up guys." Eluyemi, a student from Nigeria who has studied at Lum
umba for six years, said she had been a frequent target of racism by Russians.
"I was once told by a doctor, I can't treat a black person. I wasn't taught in
medical school how to treat a black person, " Eluyemi said. "You walk on the
street and people call you 'Monkey' and say 'Stop hiding your tail' and things
like that.
--
The Zimbabwean Embassy told the AP that prosecutors issued a preliminary report
saying the officer who shot Chisomoro would be charged with abuse of authority.
But Commonwealth TV quoted Moscow's chief prosecutor, Gennady  Ponomarev, as
saying the policeman acted in self-defense.
--
Witnesses to the shooting gave the following account: Five students from Zimbab
e were sitting at a picnic table Tuesday evening drinking beer and vodka to cel
ebrate a holiday. A policeman and a friend were sitting nearby drinking vodka w
hen the friend's dog tried to bite one of the Zimbabweans, Brave Rusike. When R
usike kicked at  the dog to shoo him away, the owner approached and an argument
ensued. "Then the policeman came up and punched my friend in the face and put  a
gun at my frie
nd's chest," said Anthony Phisi, 25, one of the Zimbabweans at the table. Rusik
e ran for cover beh
ind a nearby tree, and the policeman shot Chimusoro in the neck. "He was shocke
d when he realized what he had done," Phisi said, "and he ran to help Gideon...
 but when he saw the damage was done, he collected the cartridge and left." As
Chimusoro lay motionless, dying, a riot erupted around him. Police fired into
the air to disperse  the crowd of students who had come to see what had
happened, but the students began stoning the police car containing the gunman.
--
Lumumba University, named for a Congolese revolutionary, was founded by Nikita
S. Krushchev in the early 1960s when dozens
of Latin American, Asian and African countries won their independence. Students
 from Third World nations-- some 20 percent are African-- received Soviet-subsi
dized educations there.But since the Soviet Union's collapse, Lumumba has become
a burden for the Russian government.
----

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