UPNG bans student leaders

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By LUKE KAMA
STUDENT leaders at the University of Papua New Guinea involved in the recent protest and the boycotting of classes have been permanently banned from campus by the university administration.
The university council has however given them seven days to appeal against the decision.
Student Representative Council president Kenneth Rapa told The National yesterday that the council executives, provincial and regional student leaders involved in the protest had been permanently barred from entering UPNG.
They had led the eight-week protest in May and June demanding that Prime Minister Peter O’Neill step down from office and allow police to investigate corruption allegations against him. O’Neill told them he had done nothing wrong to step down.
The student leaders were given their termination letters when they turned up with other students to register for the resumption of classes for the 2016 academic year.
A copy of the letter sighted by The National yesterday was signed by acting Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic and Student Affairs Professor Mange Matui.
Rapa said the letter meant they were permanently barred from entering UPNG.
“We are not allowed to return to UPNG again next year or in the future,” Rapa told The National.
“This is totally uncalled for. It’s a disaster to one’s life and future as most of the students are in their final year (of study).”
Vice-president Arthur Amos said every person in PNG had the right to freedom of speech and the right to education.
“This is an abuse of human rights and our rights to education. We are the mouth of the students and we do what the majority of the students want,” he said.
“The student body including the leaders want a reconciliation to continue the academic year as announced by the council.”
Amos said the university wanted students to resume class but “when we arrived on campus, we were escorted like criminals and ordered out of the campus by the security”.
“This is intimidating. We are not criminals wearing masks during the protest. We are students who made a fight for the country,” he said.
Meanwhile, acting Chancellor Dr Nicholas Mann said the university administration was only following normal disciplinary procedures.
“All students were encourage to come back to class but those students that go beyond and take the laws into their own hands will have to pay the price for that,” he said.
“Whether in primary school, high school or university, there are rules to address student’s issues,” Mann said.