Despite of the long term hunger strike by the students of the Independent Azerbaijan University with the subsequent joining of the parents to the protest action, the Ministry of Education has not made any concrete steps in resolution of the students’ problem. Because of hard health condition, the students changed the form of protest from hunger strike to the “sitting strike” (02-JUL-2006)

Written by HRH Baku/Shahla Ismailova; materials from Information agencies Turan Info, Today.AZ, Yeni Musavat, interviews with the strikers.

The 1-month hunger striker of the students of the Independent University for the right to continue their education despite of the close of the university stopped. The hot weather and the deteriorated health condition of the students made their number change every day. Among the strikers there were people who were hospitalized for several times, but after slight recovery continued the process. Among them was Faig Aliyev, who was hospitalized for 4 times since the beginning of the strike. Therefore, the students decided to continue their fight for education by changing the form of protest temporarily from hunger to the “sitting protest” in the building of the university. Currently the number of strikers is 100.

Mothers’ protest
The mothers of the striking students joined the protest action and started the hunger strike last week. They cannot understand the indifference of the Ministry of Education to the problem and decided to support the action, hoping for some positive result. Some of the mothers are in despair and voiced the idea to suicide to attract the attention of the government to the issue. Among them are Adila Guliyeva and Dilbar Ahmedova – the mothers of the students. “We restricted ourselves in so many things just to be able to pay for the education of our children and now they are out of the university without any concrete plan to be transferred. We will burn ourselves just in front of the Ministry of Education and maybe then Misir Mardanov [Minister] will do something”, said the women.

External interest
According to Elnur Mamedov, the chair of the Students’ Rights Protection Committee, the highest external interest to the students’ issue was shown by the representative of American Bar Association – Robert Isman. He has already initiated the meeting of the students’ representatives with the Ministry of Education and participates in the process of negotiations. Robert Isman also makes the concrete suggestions to the both sides, which the students get agree with. The process continues.

Court
On the 3-rd of July the students appealed to the Narimanov District Court to consider their case. The students’ rights are defended by famous lawyers Rashid Hajily, Intigam Aliyev, Annagy Hajibeyli and Leyla Madatova. The students stated that depending on the court decision, their actions will be adequate and the continuation of the hunger strike is among the possible means of protest again

The previous information on this theme can be found at:  http://humanrightshouse.org/Articles/621.html