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Daruso disowns statement on students` crisis
2007-05-04 09:25:35
By Christina Mwangosi
In a dramatic turn, the Dar es Salaam University Students Organization (Daruso) yesterday disowned a statement made by the Tanzania Higher Learning Institutions Students` Organization (Tahliso) to the effect that the suspended students have apologized to the government.
Daruso also rejected the view given by Tahliso that the students’ strike was both wrong and illegal.
``The strike was legal…and the students have not apologized to the government.
We have not succumbed to the government`s stance,`` said Daruso President Daudi Deo in an interview with The Guardian yesterday.
He said university students organizations recently met under the umbrella of Tahliso, and agreed to write a letter of apology to President Jakaya Kikwete and other people who were insulted and damaged by the outcome of the legal strike through billboards, placards, and posters.
``We want to apologize to people whose reputation had been affected by the outcome of the strike…but that does not mean the strike was wrong and illegal,`` he said.
``Our grievances are still genuine. It was not our intention to insult anybody,`` he added.
The Daruso President said Tahliso had overlooked critical issues of the entire controversy and come up with different issues contrary to the recent universities students` organizations meeting.
In what appeared to be students bowing to government conditions, Tahliso said in its statement that the suspended students had apologized to the government and that the strike was a wrong and improper approach of resolving the problem.
``We appeal to the government to forgive all students who took part in the strike,`` read part of the statement.
The students` organizations` apex body had also warned political parties against using the strike in advancing their political interests.
But the Daruso president disagreed with the official Tahliso position saying: ``The idea when we sat as Tahliso was to write a letter of apology to President Kikwete. We agreed on this because Daruso was unable to control emotional and disturbed students who designed placards that carried insulting messages during the strike.``
Deo said they had planned to include genuine students` demands in the letter to the President rather than letting him receive students` complaints through the media.
``We had agreed to send a formal request to meet with the President and discuss problems in higher learning institutions,`` he added.
He said Daruso did not meet with Tahliso office bearers and agree to apologize to the government in relation to the strike as claimed by the students organizations` apex body.
``Daruso did not say the strike was wrong…the strike was legal,`` said Deo.
He blamed Tahliso for contradicting issues and calling a press conference that revealed different facts to the public.
In accordance with the country`s constitution, he said, Tahliso has no mandate to refrain anybody students, student organizations or political parties from pressing for other peoples` rights or voicing out against any misconduct.
``Daruso called on the public to help the students out of the problems. We did not single out specific political parties or politicians…it was a call for all Tanzanians,`` he said.
Daruso according to the student leader, was still readily available to defend students who would not manage to pay the 40 per cent contribution as required by the university management.
The organization wants the government to allow back all suspended students regardless of their financial position, taking into account the prevailing level of poverty facing majority of families.
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