By Joe Rukin
For years the first port of call for any self-respecting deposed military dictator has been Zurich to clean out the Swiss Bank account. But where do they go next? What job opportunities are there for corrupt murderers? Where will they and all their cash feel safe? The answer is now Boston University.
Fellowships are being created for ex-African leaders, corrupt or otherwise, but the University expect to be seen as the only viable place to go for many of the former. The first ex-leader to enrol is Kenneth Kaunda who led Zambia to independence in 1964. He ruled under a one-party system for 19 years, but eight years later in 1991 when he lost a fair election, he walked away.
Former heads of government who are granted fellowships will teach and travel in the United States for a year, get a house in the poshest part of town, an undisclosed stipend, and their own armed guards. Asked if there would ever be a place for Robert Mugabe, Kevin Carleton, a spokesman for the university, said:
"The vision is that having a very respectable position, which honours the individual and his achievements, will be seen as an enticement to those in power, or perhaps newly out of power but contemplating a return, that there is an appropriate civil course for them to pursue. Very few will not have skeletons in the closet. But if we were to look for purity in their legacies as if we were the Vatican, we would have an empty chair here."
A British lecturer, Jerzy Toloczko, 51, from Leicester, has been hacked to death with an axe by his gardener and buried in a shallow grave in Ilanda near Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. The gardener and his accomplice were caught after wearing clothes stolen from Mr Toloczko and visiting a traditional healer for a cleansing ceremony to avoid detection and torment by the victim's spirit.
Following protests which lasted a week, authorities in Bangladesh have indefinitely closed down the country's top engineering university. Students had been on hunger strike for a week, with four taken to hospital, following the shooting of a student during a clash between rival factions within the pro-government student front. Troops were sent in to deal with protesters who were occupying the area outside the vice-chancellors office. Tear gas and batons were used and running battles ensued before students at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology were asked to leave their dormitories by 5pm on Sunday. Neighbouring Dhaka University, the largest in the country was shut in July following a week of similar protests.
Thaw Thaw Myo Han, a telecommunications student at Rangoon's University of Technology and writer and contributor to the pro-democracy magazines "Sa-be-byu", "Han-thit" and "Atwe-amyin", was arrested by the military secret police on 17 August 2002, along with two other students. He was released with 19 other students on 23 August. He told Radio Free Asia that they had been arrested and interrogated in connection with "illegal publications", but had not been mistreated.
In a joint letter to the Burmese interior minister, RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard and Burma Media Association President U Thaung stated
"The Burmese junta has shown unprecedented signs of opening-up in recent months, with the release of Aung San Suu Kyi and numerous other dissidents. These fresh arrests are the most unfortunate and most blatant refutation of this opening. They raise the spectre of a new wave of repression against opposition activists, in particular journalists, who attempt to inform the population about the activities of opposition movements and the situation in the country."
Related Links
Ifex, Student activist and journalist detained and released in Rangoon
BBC, Protests shut Bangladeshi university
Independent, Wanted: African dictators for position at university
Guardian, From president to professor: university seeks African leaders
Guardian, British lecturer axed to death in Zimbabwe
