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On July 2, at 14.00pm in front of the Embassy of the Republic of the Congo, gathered a group of people who participated in a picket in support of Congolese students.
Formerly this situation was highlighted in Julia Bashinova’s articles “What makes Congolese students picket” and “Is the Embassy of Congo going to protect its citizens?”. To sum up, the reason of this picket was the delay of payment of scholarships that Congolese students had not been receiving for 6 months; in fact, they were left to the mercy of fate by their own State and Embassy. It must be said, however, that in the morning before the picket the requirements were met in haste and the scholarship was paid to students, some of them received it for the first time. Everything seemed to be going well, so that there would be no reason to picket. But Congolese students and supporting civil organizations not only have the objective of solving of the problem with scholarships, but also of creating systematic mechanisms in the solutions of problems faced by foreign students in Russia. That is why a group of students and young activists drew up a letter where they formulated their main problems and ways of possible solutions; they tried to give this letter to the Congolese Ambassador in person, but did not succeed in it.
At 14.00pm the Ambassador left the Embassy hurrying for a meeting. The participants of the picket decided to pass the letter with their conditions to the deputy ambassador, who said that he was not authorized to take letters addressed to the Ambassador and disappeared in the building of the Embassy. They did not succeed to register the letter in the embassy's office either, because access to the Embassy is only allowed for people within the list of appointments, with a special invitation or for citizens of Congo. So, they were obliged to leave the letter in the mailbox near the Embassy's entrance.
Lada Burdacheva, member of the Congolese students aid-team and Interregional students' Trade Union, commented: “In the picket participated a few people – Julia Bashinova (YHRM), Vanya Ninenko (Transparency International, Russia ), Venik Dmitroshkin (journalist, Grani.ru), two Congolese students and me. Unfortunately, many Congolese students who recently arrived in Russia were frightened by this morning conversation with the Ambassador. But when you stand up for your rights, there are always people who blame you for not loving your country and being a rebel. And it happens not only in Congo”.
Now the foreign students and Russian civil organizations are waiting impatiently for an official answer from the Embassy and are wondering whether they will be obliged to picket again during the next six months to obtain the payment of regular semi-annual scholarship, or if at least one problem of foreign students is solved.
Only time will tell. For now we celebrate our small victory. Hooray!
The International Network on Student Rights,
Information Service: http://students.yhrm.org
students@yhrm.org
+7-919-249-52-72
