European students' union sticks up for expelled Belarusian

Last month Belarusian student Tatsiana Khoma was called out of her lecture at the Belarus State Economic University (BSEU) and informed that she was being expelled.

The reason given was that she had shamed the university and broken its rules when she travelled to France to attend a meeting of ESIB, The National Unions of Students in Europe, without informing the university. ESIB is the umbrella organisation of 44 national unions of students from 34 countries and, through them, its members represent over 10 million students.

Ms Khoma, who was elected a member of ESIB at the meeting, is now being strongly supported by the national union of students, which believes that her expulsion is a violation of her human rights to freely move and travel and of the right to freedom of association.

"I was very surprised that I was expelled because I never had any problems with the university administration and had never been reprimanded or given any warnings," Ms Khoma, in her fourth year of studying international economic relations, told The Times in a telephone interview as she recalled her sudden expulsion.

In travelling to France to attend the ESIB elections, she missed three days of lectures. When she returned to the university on November 22 the dean called her to his office and asked her why she had not attended. When she told him where she had been he told her it was a justified reason and asked her to write an explanatory note, which she did.

"Then, two days later, I was called back into the dean's office for a one-hour talk and, that same day, I was called out of a lecture and taken before the student trade union for some sort of extraordinary meeting. There I was told that a draft order for my expulsion had been issued....

"The following day I went to speak to the rector (Vladimir Nikolaevich Shimov) who told me that he had already signed the expulsion order."

When Ms Khoma asked why she was being asked to leave, she was told that the university was responsible for her and by going to France, which was not safe, she had let down the university.

She argued that she had always been a good student and, to this, she was told that she was a good student academically but she had broken all the rules.

"I never expected it. I was shocked. At first I found it difficult to realise that I had been expelled. I felt really lost but later on in the day I spoke to my friends in Belarus... The next day when I went to speak to the rector I was confident and ready to defend my rights."

ESIB chairman Justin Fenech believes that the rector's decision was a political one in reaction to Ms Khoma's involvement with a European student organisation and constituted a breach of her rights.

"ESIB has launched a full scale campaign to gather support from its various European partners to condemn this action and student unions all over the world have shown their support and have pressured their universities and governments to show support.

"The response has been incredible. The European Association of Universities (EUA) has suspended BSEU while the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the Council of Europe are currently investigating the issue," he said.

In a response to BSEU's suspension from EUA, the rector, Mr Shimov, stated that the expulsion of Ms Khoma was the 51st made this year for the same reason: violating university regulations.

When informed that there had been other cases before, Ms Khoma said she did not believe that the other 50 students had been expelled for the same reason. She added that the university had a total capacity of 25,000 students.

Now Ms Khoma is concentrating on sorting out her studies while she awaits a reply from the Ministry of Education in Belarus. She also intends to continue her work within ESIB which, for her, means a "great opportunity" to work with students on a European level.

Dr Fenech said ESIB remains unwavering in its commitment to reinstate Ms Khoma's status as a student. Together with the University Student's Council (KSU), ESIB has approached the University of Malta, the government and KSU's other partners to see if they can actively help Ms Khoma continue her studies in Malta.

The response has been positive and they are now working on the technicalities.

"We will help make sure, with the help of EUA, that she will be able to continue her studies abroad... We will continue to pressure our European partners to address the violations of human rights faced by Belarusian students," Dr Fenech said.

"Democracy in higher education is not something we should ever take for granted. There are universities, especially in Eastern Europe, that are run with an iron fist, where students have no say in governance and may be expelled at the whim of the rector.

"Tatsiana's situation is a clear example of this. Universities in Europe should never lose sight of the importance of running a democratic institution where students, as equal stakeholders, are involved within the governance of the university. Students should be listened to and university authorities should act upon students' complaints and ideas."

Besides, Dr Fenech added, students should also wake up to the reality that not everyone has the same opportunities they have. They should lead an active student life and get involved in student organisations.

For more information about ESIB and the case of Ms Khoma, including copies of correspondence sent by the EUA, visit www.esib.org.