Students,
Professors Flee to the Kurdish North Mohammed A. Salih ARBIL, Jan 26 (IPS) - 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."
