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Iraqi Students, Professors Flee to the
Kurdistan
27.1.2007
By Mohammed A. Salih
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Erbil, Kurdistan
region (Iraq), January 26, -- Academic life in
Iraq's volatile southern and central regions has
become increasingly paralysed, with hundreds of
students and professors targeted and many more
abandoning their educational institutions in search
of a refuge.
Raad Yaseen, 25, fled Baghdad's insecurity in
mid-2004 to study at Mosul University, 396 kms north
of the capital. He stayed there barely a year,
fleeing again in early 2005 to Arbil, 80 kms east of
Mosul, in the country's safer northern Kurdistan
region. Now he studies sociology in Arbil's
Salahaddin University.
He is still traumatised by the "horrible scenes" he
saw in Mosul.
"Right outside our dormitory, we could see corpses
dumped on the streets with notes pinned on their
chests that 'this traitor is punished'," Yaseen, a
Sunni Arab, recalled of the experiences he and
fellow students had in Mosul.
His family later followed him to Arbil after
militias tied to the al-Badr organisation, the
military wing of the powerful Shia Supreme Council
for Islamic Revolution in Iraq, forced them to
evacuate their house in Baghdad.
Several of Yaseen's classmates and friends were
killed as part of the rampant violence that has
engulfed academic staff as well.
"Because of the violence over there, it is very
difficult, almost impossible, to study," he said.
"And I see no solution for this situation in the
country really."
Since the eruption of violence in Iraq, following
the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, Kurdistan's five
universities have been flooded with students and
professors who abandoned their original schools.
Figures from regional government institutions show
that from the beginning of 2006 until November of
the same year, nearly 1,200 students from other
parts of the country have been admitted to Kurdistan
universities. That figure is growing on a daily
basis as the number of people fleeing violence the
in central and southern parts of Iraq continues to
rise.
"This year we have been forced to admit students
more than our initial plan," Dr. Mohammed Sabir,
head of the Planning Department in the Ministry of
Higher Education of Kurdistan's Regional Government,
told IPS.
"If this wave of new students is going to continue,
then we have to postpone the [course of] study for
some of them to next year, since we cannot
accommodate all these students," he said.
Kurdistan's universities are already grappling with
demonstrations and strikes from students protesting
the inadequate facilities. Many believe there is a
systematic terror campaign designed to bring Iraq's
academic life to a halt.
In the latest incident of violence, 70 students were
killed on Jan. 17 in a series of bombings that
targeted Baghdad's al-Mustansiriyah University, one
of the country's largest scientific centres.
Following that incident, more students and academic
staff are expected to abandon their universities.
In November last year, in the biggest kidnapping
operation since the war began, more than 150
employees and visitors in an office of Iraq's Higher
Education Ministry in Baghdad were abducted. Many of
them were later killed, while others were released.
The mass kidnapping led to the temporary shutdown of
most universities. Although Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki
eventually ordered the educational institutions to
be reopened, academic life in the capital has been
tense and unreliable ever since.
According to figures from BRrussel's Tribunal, a
non-governmental organisation tracking academics
killed in Iraq's violence, over the past three
years, more than 250 Iraqi academics have been
killed and hundreds more have disappeared.
Some of the more affluent professors are leaving for
neighbouring countries, especially those on the
Persian Gulf. Others prefer to move to Kurdistan.
Many of the students in the predominantly Kurdish
cities of the north face difficulties in learning
the Kurdish language, commonly used in local
universities for communication and, in many cases,
teaching.
Wafa Mosuli, a 23-year-old college student of
Kurdish descent, fled Mosul after the sectarian
strife between the city's Kurds and Sunni Arabs
intensified in late 2005 and early 2006. She now
studies archeology at Arbil's Salahaddin University.
Seven of her neighbours and one of her classmates
were killed during a week of clashes in their
neighbourhood.
She now has problems communicating with her mainly
Kurdish classmates and some professors, which she
hopes to overcome quickly.
While the "unbearable situation" in the city forced
her to leave, she feels nostalgic for the friends
and streets she left behind.
Many like her doubt that they will get another
chance to return to their old communities.
"If I tell you that I cry every single day, it is
still not enough, because I was forced to leave all
my memories, friends and childhood behind," Wafa
said sadly. "If I get a sense that it (the
situation) is going to improve, I will run from here
to Mosul
barefoot."
IPS
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