Murder of academicians latest cause of worry

Baghdad: A string of assassinations of academicians sparked worries about the future of education in the war-torn country.

Education to Iraqis is the last hope of achieving stability and development.

A document of the Professors' Association in Iraq revealed that 182 academicians from Baghdad University, Al Mustansiriya University, University of Technology, Musel and Basra universities were murdered since the collapse of Saddam Hussain's regime. Ali Al Mahawish, Dean of the Engineering College of Al Mustansiriya University, became the latest victim, as people urged the Iraqi government to protect the country's intellectual elite.

Foreign hand

Nasif Jasem Al Juburi, Economic Planning Professor at Baghdad University, said the assassinations are part of a plan that begins with exiling academicians and ends with aborting attempts to persuade the scientists who left Iraq to return. "I am sure that what is happening is foreign terror, planned for foreign sides, and carried on now as the deteriorating situation in Iraq allows that."

According to the Iraqi Physicians Syndicate, 80 per cent of the country's cardiologists, oncologists and haematologists left Iraq for fear of being killed and are working now in the USA and the UK, in what is considered by Iraqi analysts as an attempt to make Iraq the most retarded country.

Ali Al Adhadh, former consultant at the Ministry of Science and Technology, said the target was to stall strategic programmes and projects in Iraq. "The plan started since the UN-imposed sanction on Iraq, and has not stopped. There is more than 1,200 Iraqi atomic, biology and chemistry scientists under home arrest by the American forces. The Americans pay them pension to prevent them from moving to work at neighbouring countries, specially Syria, Iran or Saudi Arabia."

Kurdistan attracted some academicians to its universities of Arbil, Sulaimaniah and Dhok but a funds crunch stalls recruitment.

Academicians were considered the 'unknown soldiers' behind Iraqi constitution and had worked as consultants to the government. This was another reason why they are targeted, felt some as others believed involvement of Iran, militias of political parties and even Israel in the killings.

The writer is a journalist based in Baghdad