On Thursday 2 April, we saw the deployment of police and fire-department forces, road blockades, an extended security perimeter and finally the intervention of security forces as a needless escalation. We believe that this excessive force was avoidable and in part enabled by the negligence of the Executive Board to explore alternative routes towards a peaceful ending of the protest. As a result, twenty students were taken into custody for up to 48 hours, with numerous reports of physical and verbal abuse on the part of the police.
Setting aside concerns about the appropriateness of allocating public resources, we regret that the communication from the Executive Board was lacking in transparency and consistency. The Executive Board attempted to contact them through Instagram messages and by brief conversations through the window, restricting their messaging to demands of them leaving the building. As some of us offered to mediate, we noticed no willingness on Executive Board’s part to enter into substantive conversations. As the police intervened “due to security reasons regarding high-field MRI scanners”, the situation was “out of the hands of UM, and in the hands of the security forces”, the Board claimed.
Eventually, all students protestors inside the building were arrested starting from around 17.30 and brought to the Maastricht and Heerlen police stations. Student protestors report disproportionate use of force during and after arrest, they say they have been dragged by their hair, kneed in the stomach, slammed onto the ground with enough force to cause blurred vision and later nosebleeds and bruises, and having boots and knees placed on their backs, arms, heads and necks, and more.
We wish to emphasize the importance of restoring dialogue and trust between the Executive Board and the UM community and we call for accountability for the failure to prevent an escalation of violence. Both the University and media must cease treating our students, who have not harmed anyone in the course of these protests, as the security threat. We also call on a reflection on how these actions harm UM core values, notably academic citizenship.
Jakub Ac, teacher FASoS, UM Staff for Palestine
(together with other UM staff members who were on the scene, some of whom are members of UM Staff for Palestine – they want to stay anonymous)