BEIRUT: Students of the Faculty of Journalism and Documentation Thursday held a sit-in at the Lebanese University in Fanar, north of Beirut, as part of the second day of a strike to demand government protection after recurrent shooting incidents near the campus.
Students shouted slogans and brandished placards as they protested against the presence of gunmen in the streets around the university.
“We have the right to learn and it’s the government’s duty to protect us,” one banner read. “Flirt phrases, but no bullets,” another sign said.
Fanar’s 500 journalism students stayed at home Wednesday, halting classes across the campus.
The protests came after LU students said bullets Tuesday whizzed over the head of fellow classmate who had just left the Fanar campus where Labor Minister Sejaan Azzi was giving a lecture.
The student, identified by her first name, Joelle, was not hit when an armed man on a motorcycle opened fire into the air and then fled toward Zeaiterieh, a small, poor neighborhood tucked away in the Fanar hills.
A student at the Fanar campus said the incident occurred when Joelle left Azzi’s lecture to go home.
“As she left a man riding a motorcycle and carrying a pistol opened fire, but thank God Joelle was not hurt,” she said.
LU students said Tuesday’s shooting was the third such incident this year.
A statement issued by the student body of the journalism school at the Fanar campus said their actions seek to force the government to improve security for the university.
No comments:
Post a Comment