Killings Lead To Brain Drain From Iraq
By Oliver Poole, in Baghdad
London Daily Telegraph
April 17, 2006
The head of Arabic studies at Baghdad University was shot 32 times when his car was ambushed on the way to work.
Abdul Latif al-Mayah was murdered after he had appeared on al-Jazeera television. Police described the killing as "professional".
In Ramadi, the president of the university, Abdul Hadi Rajab al-Hitawi, was dragged from his home and bundled into the boot of a car.
A ransom demand was received a few days later.
Both men are among the growing number of intellectuals to be targeted in Iraq, a phenomenon that is resulting in an unprecedented brain drain as those who can move abroad increasingly do so before they or their families join the list of their colleagues killed or kidnapped.
At least 182 academics have been killed since the invasion in 2003 and there have been many more kidnappings and murder attempts.
And it is not just university professors who are being targeted. In the past four months alone 331 school teachers have been murdered and nine medical workers were killed in a single day in the northern city of Mosul last month.
In response the city's doctors and nurses held a one-day strike in an attempt to force the authorities to provide an adequate number of armed guards at hospitals.
It was thought that the fall of Saddam Hussein would lead to an influx of skilled exiles who would provide the impetus to help rebuild the country.
Instead, the opposite is occurring. By some estimates there are now a million Iraqis in Jordan compared to 300,000 at the time of Saddam's fall.
One prominent new exile is Dr Omar Kubasi, formerly head of Iraq's military medical corps. He left Baghdad last May after he and nine other doctors received letters telling them they would be killed if they continued working.
He and his family now live in Amman, the Jordanian capital, among many former colleagues. Their days are spent drinking coffee near the city's central plaza discussing the disintegration of the medical system they helped establish.
"It is mental death to sit here but even my patients say I should not come back," he told the Washington Post.
"The teaching care was excellent, based on the British system. We were successful enough under Saddam to start our own postgraduate studies, including many medical specialities. Now they are ridding the country of all of this."
Many believe that the targeting of professionals is part of an orchestrated campaign.
Isam Kadhem al-Rawi, the head of the Association of University Lecturers, said political groups inside and outside the country were seeking to rid Iraq of individuals capable of independent thought. By doing so, the men of violence made it easier to push their own agenda, he said.
Those who defy the gunmen worry how the country can be rebuilt effectively or how the professionals of tomorrow will be trained.
"We could be left with a society without knowledge," said Amer Hassan Fayed, assistant dean of political science at Baghdad University.
"How can such a society make progress?"
London Daily Telegraph
April 17, 2006
The head of Arabic studies at Baghdad University was shot 32 times when his car was ambushed on the way to work.
Abdul Latif al-Mayah was murdered after he had appeared on al-Jazeera television. Police described the killing as "professional".
In Ramadi, the president of the university, Abdul Hadi Rajab al-Hitawi, was dragged from his home and bundled into the boot of a car.
A ransom demand was received a few days later.
Both men are among the growing number of intellectuals to be targeted in Iraq, a phenomenon that is resulting in an unprecedented brain drain as those who can move abroad increasingly do so before they or their families join the list of their colleagues killed or kidnapped.
At least 182 academics have been killed since the invasion in 2003 and there have been many more kidnappings and murder attempts.
And it is not just university professors who are being targeted. In the past four months alone 331 school teachers have been murdered and nine medical workers were killed in a single day in the northern city of Mosul last month.
In response the city's doctors and nurses held a one-day strike in an attempt to force the authorities to provide an adequate number of armed guards at hospitals.
It was thought that the fall of Saddam Hussein would lead to an influx of skilled exiles who would provide the impetus to help rebuild the country.
Instead, the opposite is occurring. By some estimates there are now a million Iraqis in Jordan compared to 300,000 at the time of Saddam's fall.
One prominent new exile is Dr Omar Kubasi, formerly head of Iraq's military medical corps. He left Baghdad last May after he and nine other doctors received letters telling them they would be killed if they continued working.
He and his family now live in Amman, the Jordanian capital, among many former colleagues. Their days are spent drinking coffee near the city's central plaza discussing the disintegration of the medical system they helped establish.
"It is mental death to sit here but even my patients say I should not come back," he told the Washington Post.
"The teaching care was excellent, based on the British system. We were successful enough under Saddam to start our own postgraduate studies, including many medical specialities. Now they are ridding the country of all of this."
Many believe that the targeting of professionals is part of an orchestrated campaign.
Isam Kadhem al-Rawi, the head of the Association of University Lecturers, said political groups inside and outside the country were seeking to rid Iraq of individuals capable of independent thought. By doing so, the men of violence made it easier to push their own agenda, he said.
Those who defy the gunmen worry how the country can be rebuilt effectively or how the professionals of tomorrow will be trained.
"We could be left with a society without knowledge," said Amer Hassan Fayed, assistant dean of political science at Baghdad University.
"How can such a society make progress?"
posted by Hanan Elbadry at 10:22 AM
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