DATE=8/10/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=STRIKE VIOLENCE (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-253057
BYLINE=GREG FLAKUS
DATELINE=MEXICO CITY
CONTENT=
VOICED AT=
INTRO: Striking students at Mexico's largest
university, The National Autonomous University of
Mexico, known as UNAM (oon NAHM), used homemade bombs
and other weapons to drive back some 300 students
opposed to the strike who tried to enter the campus on
Monday. As VOA's Greg Flakus reports from Mexico
City, authorities are still refraining from taking any
action against the militants who seized the university
more than four months ago.
TEXT: The students who marched to the university
gates on Monday were demanding the right to continue
their studies and were intent on taking back the
campus, but they were met by a few dozen militants
brandishing clubs and other weapons. The students
scattered through the nearby streets after someone
threw several explosive devices into their midst.
/// sound from explosions ///
A video photographer for Mexico's TV Azteca fell to
the ground with a wound to the chest after one device
exploded near him. The wound was not serious and he
was later taken to a hospital and treated. At least
five other people were also injured in the
confrontation.
Violent incidents like this have fueled the cry for
government intervention, but neither city nor federal
officials want to use force to retake UNAM from the
small group of militants who are now preventing more
than 250 thousand students from beginning the fall
semester of studies. In a speech Monday, Mexican
president Ernesto Zedillo, condemned the violence and
the intransigence of the strikers, but said he will
not resort to violence to end the conflict.
/// Zedillo Act (Spanish) ///
Mr Zedillo said the federal government has not
abandoned its responsibilities but that he knows the
people of Mexico do not want a repressive government.
He said governments in the past were too quick to use
brute force to resolve such conflicts. Mr Zedillo,
who was a student in the late 1960's, said he
experienced personally the repression of that time and
knows all too well the mark it left on Mexican
society.
In 1968, Mexican soldiers fired on student
demonstrators in a Mexico City plaza, killing as many
as 300 people. A recent book revealed evidence that
the massacre was planned well in advance by high-
ranking civilian and military officials. The memory
of that incident has been hanging like a cloud over
the conflict at UNAM since April 20. Still, some
critics of the strike say the time has come for the
government to intervene and end the strike before the
university is damaged or even closed permanently.
(Signed).
NEB/GF/TVM/PT
23-Aug-1999 19:06 PM LOC (23-Aug-1999 2306 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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