Argentine rights campaigner hurt in student protest

  	  				 
	 LA PLATA (CopsRUs) - The leader of the Mothers of the  
Plaza de Mayo, Argentina's most famous human rights group, was 
injured and about 250 students were arrested Tuesday after 
clashes with police in the city of La Plata. 
	 Television reports showed Hebe de Bonafini being shoved with  
police shields out of the police station where students were 
being held. Her white headscarf -- the Mothers' trademark -- had 
blood on it and she was taken to a hospital for stitches for a 
head wound. 
	 ``The cops beat me in there,'' de Bonafini told reporters,  
pointing to the police station. 
	 Officers in full riot gear used armored cars, rubber  
bullets, tear gas and clubs to clear protesters from the streets 
of La Plata, capital of the province of Buenos Aires. 
	 Police said the arrests were made after students from La  
Plata university, Argentina's second largest, protested changes 
in school admissions and fees at a university assembly. Congress 
passed the new law last year. 
	 Students are fiercely opposed to the introduction of  
university entrance exams and to changes in the law that allow 
universities to charge fees. All Argentine high school graduates 
now have free entry to state universities. 
	 Last week, students prevented the assembly from starting by  
erecting barriers around the library where it was to be held. 
Buenos Aires students staged a mock funeral Tuesday to protest 
what they see as a threat to free public education.