- In recent months assassinations have targeted engineers,
pharmacologists, officers, and lawyers.
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- More than 1000 leading Iraqi professionals and intellectuals
have been assassinated since last April, among them such prominent figures
as Dr Muhammad al-Rawi, the president of Baghdad University.
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- The identity of the assailants remains a mystery and
none have been caught.
- But families and colleagues of victims believe that Iraqi
parties with foreign affiliations have an interest in wiping out Iraq's
intellectual elite.
-
- Media reports suggest that more than 3000 Iraqi academics
and high-profile professionals have left Iraq recently, not to mention
the thousands of Iraqis who are travelling out of the country every day
in search of work and safety.
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- "Iraqis used to leave Iraq during the 13-year UN
sanctions for better work opportunities, but they are leaving now to avoid
being assassinated by unknown, well-organised death squads," said
political analyst and politics professor Dhafir Salman.
- Usama al-Ani, director of the research and development
department in the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research
said top Iraqi scientists have been targeted by foreign parties.
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- "I believe Iraqi scientists are being targeted by
foreign powers, most probably Israel."
- Terror campaign
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- Monday's issue of the pro-US Iraqi internet newspaper
Iraq of Tomorrow reported that the decapitated body of mathematics professor
Dr Abd al-Samai Abd al-Razaq had been found in a Baghdad street.
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- Aljazeera.net contacted Dr Abd al-Samai's family in Baghdad
and was surprised to find him very much alive.
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- "They published such a story to terrify me and my
family," he told Aljazeera.net, accusing political and religious parties
of turning Iraqi universities into political battlefields.
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- "Since occupation, universities have become fertile
recruitment ground for political and religious parties. Students should
be devoted to their studies, not to serving the interests of those who
seek power.
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- "These groups are targeting me and all my colleagues
who want to preserve respected Iraqi institutions from destruction."
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- Aside from the terror campaign, measures taken by the
post occupation authorities have contributed to Iraq's brain drain.
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- "I would like to ask the de-Baathification committee
why they are so happy that many thousands of Baathists have been sacked
from Iraq's governmental departments and educational institutions?"
Salman says. "Do they think they have done well? Of course, not.
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- "They have sacked Iraq's elite professionals; who
will replace them? Where will the replacements come from? After all, these
people are Iraqis, is this in line with the national reconciliation they
are talking about?"
-
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- Before the war on Iraq, US and UK officials repeatedly
accused the Iraqi government of triggering the exodus of four million educated
Iraqis.
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- But under the occupation the rate of emigration has increased.
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- "Iraqi universities have lost 1315 scientists who
hold MA and PhD degrees," al-Ani said. "This number constitutes
eight per cent of the 15,500 Iraqi academics.
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- "Up until now, 30% of those who were sacked as result
of the campaign have left Iraq."
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- Education system
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- Iraq is rich in intellectuals, largely as a result of
Saddam Hussein's policy of sending tens of thousands of Iraqi students
abroad to gain post-graduate degrees in a wide range of disciplines.
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- The practice fell into abeyance when UN sanctions were
imposed in 1990 following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.
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- In the country itself, where education has been free
since the abolition of the monarchy in 1958, most of the 20 universities
in Iraq also awarded post-graduate degrees.
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