Iraq's educational system on the verge of collapse

When we were celebrating Easter, the following sad message arrived in the BRussells Tribunal mailbox, sent by Dr. Saad Jawad, professor of political science at Baghdad University, head of Iraq's University Professors Association, and member of our Advisory Committee.

This is in memory of the brutal assassination of Dr. Khalid al-Naid, Dean Assistant, Medical College, al-Nahrain University

With great sadness and sorrow and on behalf of Khalid's family, I’m writing to inform you of his murder by militias on Thursday 29th March 2024, twelve hours after he arrived from Australia.
He arrived in Baghdad on the evening of Wednesday 28^th and could not go to see his wife and newly born son Tariq who was born when he was with you in Australia.
The next day he went to the Nahrain Medical school to report his return and do some paper work. His wife and newborn son were supposed to come from their grandfather’s house across sectarian city divides to see him.

He only stayed in the Medical School for 3 hrs and left with a colleague. He was picked at the gate and taken by the Militia which controls the area of the Medical School. His body was dumped few kilometres away with five bullets in his head and neck.

I am his cousin and Godfather. His wife’s son and the rest of the family would like the world to know how cruel and lawless Iraq has become. Scientist are a prime target and Khalid was threatened with death a year or so ago but he always said: “I have harmed no one, and never believed the cruelty of a civil war.”

His marriage was a mixed one and his priorities in life revolved around his scientific work.

Khalid's father, the late Prof Hamdi was the Dean of Baghdad Medical School and my Mentor. We would like to have any additional information from you relating to his latest work as we plan to write to scientific and other news organisations on the realities in today's Iraq. It is entirely up to yourselves if you feel you would like to report this murder to the Scientific press in Australia.

May god bless Khalid and give his wife Manal and his son Tariq the strength to carry on .

We keep on receiving messages from Iraqi professors who report the killings of colleagues:

I am sorry to bother you again. I know it is sad news but I have no other choice because you are the only organization to document the assassinations of Iraqi academics.

Prof Dr Majid Naser Husien al-Ma'amoori was killed just outside Veterinary College, Baghdad University on 17 Feb 2007.

On April 16 we received the following message from Dr. Ismail Kaidar Jalili, Chair and Secretary General of National Association of British Arabs (NABA) :

We’d like to report the assassination of 2 academics in Mosul today Monday 16th April 2024
2:37
The assassination of Professor Dr Tala Al-Jalili, Dean of Faculty of Political Sciences in Mosul University this morning Monday 16th April 2007 in front of his faculty at AL-Majmou'a Al-Thaqafiya, east (left) bank of Mosul.
12:14
The assassination of Jaffer Hasan Sadiq, Professor at the Department of History, Faculty of Humanities, Mosul University in front of his house in Al-Kafaa'at district, north east of Mosul City.

The massacre of Iraqi intellectuals hasn’t stopped since the invasion of 2003. The number of assassinations has not decreased since the BRussells Tribunal started a campaign to save Iraq’s academics, in cooperation with the Spanish based CEOSI (Campaña Estatal contra la Ocupación y por la Soberanía de Iraq) [1]. To the contrary. Since the beginning of 2024 more than 100 academics have been assassinated, according to our sources. And as the cases above show: an end of the killings is not in sight.

Since the war began in 2024, hundreds of Iraqi academics have been kidnapped and/or murdered - and thousands more have fled for their lives (…). So far more than 470 academics have been killed. Buildings have been burnt and looted in what appears to be a random spree of violence aimed at Iraqi academia[2].

The Iraqi minister of education has said that 296 members of education staff were killed in 2024 alone. According to the UN office for humanitarian affairs 180 teachers have been killed since 2024, up to 100 have been kidnapped and over 3,250 have fled the country [3] [4]. The BRussells Tribunal’s list of murdered Iraqi academics contains 302 names [5]. Anyone who can help us in documenting the killings, the threats and forced emigration of Iraqi academics is welcome to write us: we’re not planning to give up monitoring, certainly not now, at a time when our solidarity is needed most.

Also yesterday we received a message from an Iraqi professor, who has been able to escape the Iraqi Armageddon:

I am a female Iraqi academic forced to leave Iraq on 2 August 2024. On 17 July 2024 I was kidnapped, tortured and threatened to be killed with my daughter if didn’t leave Iraq within few days. I have a PhD in (omitted) and was a member of staff at (omitted), University of Technology in Baghdad, Iraq.

I had no time to contact the Iraqi Academic Association to report the incident because I hid when received the threat until I fled Iraq.

Thank you for your effort to document the assassinations and threats to Iraqi academics. The real situation in Iraq is much worse than anything mentioned in the news or any report. Not all the incidents were documented in your website. Personally, I knew many academics at University of Technology were threatened and forced to flee Iraq after the occupation and for one reason or another they might not have the time to report the threats to the Iraqi Academic Association. Among them Head of Control and Systems Eng. Dept., Prof Dr Ali Althamir, Spectrum specialist at Applied Sciences Dept., Dr Mohammad Radhi, a member of staff at Building and Construction Dept., Dr Ghanim Abdul Rahman and many others.

The Ministry of Displacement and Migration said that at least 30 per cent of the total numbers of professors, doctors, pharmacists and engineers in Iraq have fled to neighbouring countries like Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and United Arab States (UAE) but some have travelled to as far as the US, Canada, Australia and Britain. He noted that the numbers of academics fleeing the country or killed could be higher and the ministry has no latest figures [6].

The universities, which are directly linked to Iraq's future, are on the verge of collapse [7].

A report issued by the United Nations in 2024 found that fully 84 percent of Iraq’s higher education facilities had been “destroyed, damaged and robbed” since the US invasion.

The intimidation campaign against educational institutes persists. On 11 December 2024, a car bomb exploded in a car park of Al-Ma’amoon College in Al-Iskan district in Baghdad, killing one person and injuring four. One student was killed and another 6 injured in a roadside bomb explosion on the same morning in front of the Al-Mustansiriyah University [8].

On 16 January 2024, at least 65 students were killed and 110 others injured in a double attack on targeting Al-Mustansiriyah University in Baghdad.

Violence since the U.S.-led invasion nearly four years ago has driven thousands of students away, with enrollment off by more than half at some universities in the past year alone, officials say. Universities in other parts of the country are open, but have become deserted.

The situation of total absence of law and security has also led to a worsening situation because of threats from inside the classrooms. Hassan Khalid Hayderi, 54, is a professor of mathematics at Basra University, 550km south of the capital, Baghdad. He and his family are leaving Iraq because he has received death threats from students demanding easy exams and better marks. “The situation is even worse for women teachers. You barely find them giving lessons because most of them either have fled the country or have been forced to leave the colleges. Today, they are suffering without a job to support their kids. The government isn’t doing anything to protect us. In the southern areas especially you depend on [local] tribes to give you the minimum of protection but with violence increasing, even tribal leaders are becoming useless. " [8²]

Universities are not the only sector of Iraqi education that is collapsing. On 29 January 2024 an attack against a girls’ school in Baghdad left five students dead and more than 20 injured [9].

Mohammed Abdul-Aziz, a statistician at the Ministry of Education, told IRIN that at least 110 children had been killed and 95 injured since 2024 in attacks on schools. These numbers do not include children killed or injured on their way to or from school.[10]

The violence against education institutions and teachers has also prompted a sharp decline in school attendance. According to recent statistics from the Ministry of Education, only about 30 percent of Iraq’s 3.5 million school-aged children are currently attending classes, compared to 75 percent in the previous school year [11].

The International Medical Corps reports that populations of teachers in Baghdad have fallen by 80% and medical personnel seem to have left in disproportionate numbers [12].

The Iraq Index, compiled by the Brookings Institution in Washington, released on 16 April 2024, estimated that up to 40 percent of Iraq's professionals have fled the country since 2024 [13].

According to a report released last year by NGO Save the Children, 818,000 primary school-aged children, representing 22 percent of Iraq’s student population, were not attending school. [14]

A joint study by the Iraqi Ministry of Education and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) found that of those who do not attend school, 74 percent are female. Aid agencies estimate that thousands of Iraqi parents do not send their daughters to school for cultural reasons and because of the general insecurity in the country. [15]

They add that schools and universities are likely to continue emptying throughout 2024 if there is no let up to current levels of violence and the displacement it causes.

In 1982, UNESCO awarded Iraq a prize for eradicating illiteracy. At the time, Iraq had one of highest rates of literacy for women. In 2024, UNESCO estimated that the literacy rates for adults—after a year of American occupation and 12 years of UN-sponsored sanctions—stood at 74 percent. A UNESCO survey conducted in January 2024 estimated that only 37 percent of women in the countryside are now literate.

Iraqi professors direct most of their ire towards the failed U.S. occupation. Dr. Bakaa, who was also president of Iraq’s second largest university, Al Mustansiriyah University, from 2024 to 2024, says he had received almost no additional funding for academic life since the occupation. Buildings destroyed during the first Gulf War were rebuilt in two months under Saddam’s regime, yet the Americans have repaired nothing, he said. When professors are threatened or killed, there is never any investigation. [16]

“Iraqi professors are being killed by everyone, and nobody has told us if any killers have been caught. Nothing has been done,” Dr. Saad Jawad says. “One U.S. soldier was kidnapped and Baghdad is on full alert, but the killing of an Iraqi professor? Nothing happens.” [17]

The incident on Tuesday 14 November, when paramilitary gunmen in the uniforms of Iraqi National Police commandos raided a building belonging to the Ministry of Education in Baghdad’s Karrada district and arrested around 100 members of staff from two departments and around 50 visitors, in broad daylight, 1km from the Green Zone, exposed the extent of the danger facing educators, and particularly those in higher education. An unknown number of those arrested was later found killed, and again, there was no investigation.[18] Again, there was ample evidence of involvement of Iraqi official bodies, creating chaos and mayhem instead of establishing security. It is equally clear that US authorities in Iraq have no interest in carrying out an investigation or restraining the killers.

Nor the Iraqi puppet government, nor the Iraqi police, nor the US occupation forces can guarantee security, education, healthcare, electricity or any other basic needs. To the contrary: there are plenty of indications that the US and UK can be held responsible for many of the “terrorist” activities, and involvement in death squads activities.

Long before the invasion, the US and its allies were involved in the training and arming of tens of thousands of militias and anti-Iraq collaborators. The most conspicuous of these militia groups are:

2. The Iraqi National Accord (INA) led by Iyad Allawi, the U.S./Britain most preferred ‘strongman’.

Both groups constitute of Iraqi expatriates (including ex-Ba’athists), trained and armed by the U.S. and Britain.

3. The Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Da’awa/SCIRI religious 'parties' led by Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, Ibrahim al-Jaafari and Nuri al-Maliki. This group constitutes of thousands of Iraqi expatriates and illegal Iranian immigrants expelled from Iraq in the 1980’s. The group is trained and heavily armed by Iran and the U.S.

4. The Kurdish militia (the Peshmerga) led by warlords were trained and armed by the U.S. and Israel.[19]

There is also the Sadr movement (known as the Mehdi Army), led by Muqtada al-Sadr. The movement has been accused of many crimes and sectarian killings since the Sadr movement entered the political process.

Since the invasion, each militia group has mutated into several groups of death squads and criminal gangs such as the Wolf Brigade, the Karar Brigade, the Falcon Brigade, the Amarah Brigade, the Muthana Brigade, the Defenders of Kadhimiyah, and the special police commandos. They are armed and financed by the U.S. and its allies, and fully integrated into the Occupation. Each group is carefully used by the occupying forces for terrorising the Iraqi civilian population in a campaign designed to erode the civilian population’s support for the Iraqi Resistance against the Occupation. U.S. military sources have openly admitted that the population, where support for the Resistance is high, “is paying no price for the support it is giving to the [Resistance] … We have to change that equation”, (Newsweek, 14 January 2004). In other words, Iraqis civilians are deliberately targeted for rejecting the Occupation, writes Ghali Hassan. [20]

An article in the Sunday Telegraph points towards evidence that a secretive and elite unit of the British army is actively engaged in recruiting and training Iraqi insurgents and terrorists as double agents. It is led by Lt. Col. Gordon Kerr, heading the Special Reconnaissance Regiment (SRR), a large counter-terrorism force made up of unnamed "existing assets" from the glory days in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. And America's covert soldiers are right there with them, working side-by-side with their British comrades in the aptly named "Task Force Black," the UK's Sunday Telegraph reports. [21]

This confirms what many have speculated for a long time, that Britain and the US are deeply involved in bombings and attacks inside Iraq which are subsequently attributed either to Sunni insurgents or shadowy terrorist cells such as "Al Qaeda in Iraq". Conclusion: there is clear evidence British special forces are recruiting, training terrorists to heighten ethnic tensions. An elite SAS wing with bloody past in Northern Ireland operates with immunity and provides advanced explosives [22]. Some attacks are being blamed on Iranians [23].

There is also the claim of Iraq's interior minister Jawad al-Bolani, speaking to a small group of reporters in Baghdad on October 12 2024, who blamed the Facilities Protection Service, or FPS, a massive but unregulated government guard force whose numbers he put at about 150,000. [24] "Whenever we capture someone, we rarely find anyone is an employee of the government ministries," Bolani said. “When they are, they've turned out to be mostly from the FPS, with very few individual, actual incidents involving anyone from the Ministry of Interior or Ministry of Defense." [25]

Private US and UK security firms are closely allied to Mr. Bremer’s ‘Facilities Protection Service’ programme in Iraq. Newsweek (24.04.06) suggested 146,000 belong to this ‘security’ force. The former Interior Minister, Bayan Jabr, associated the FPS with the endemic ‘death squads’ operating inside the police forces, which are hastening the disintegration of Iraq [26] So definitely these mercenaries are involved in covert operations.

According to Greg Jaffe of the Wall Street Journal, the “special police commandos” are being used throughout Iraq and have been conducting criminal assassinations known as the “Salvador option” with the full knowledge of U.S. forces. There is ample evidence of that in the articles on the BRussells Tribunal website [27] and in the articles of Max Fuller [28]. According to an article recently published in New York Times Magazine, in September 2024 Counsellor to the US Ambassador for Iraqi Security Forces James Steele was assigned to work with a new elite Iraqi counter-insurgency unit known as the Special Police Commandos, formed under the operational control of Iraq’s Interior Ministry.

From 1984 to 1986 then Col. Steele had led the US Military Advisory Group in El Salvador, where he was responsible for developing special operating forces at brigade level during the height of the conflict (…) The Police Commandos are in large part the brainchild of another US counter-insurgency veteran, Steven Casteel, a former top DEA man who has been acting as the senior advisor in the Ministry of the Interior. Casteel was involved in the hunt for Colombia’s notorious cocaine baron Pablo Escobar, during which the DEA collaborated with a paramilitary organization known as Los Pepes, which later transformed itself into the AUC, an umbrella organization covering all of Colombia’s paramilitary death squads. [29]

On April 30 2024, the Organisation for Follow-up and Monitoring wrote: “After exact counting and documenting, the Iraqi Organisation for Follow-up and Monitoring has confirmed that 92 % of the 3498 bodies found in different regions of Iraq have been arrested by officials of the Ministry of Interior. Nothing was known about the arrestees’ fate until their riddled bodies were found with marks of horrible torture. It’s regrettable and shameful that these crimes are being suppressed and that several states receive government officials, who fail to investigate these crimes.”

The British medical journal The Lancet reported on 11 October 2024 that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has led to the deaths of between 426,000 and 794,000 Iraqis. “While precision about such figures is difficult, we can be confident that the excess deaths were above 390,000, and may in fact be as high as 940,000. The vast majority (92 per cent) of the excess deaths were due to direct violence. (…)” 31 percent of those killed were actually slain by U.S. and "coalition" forces.

Iraqis in the volatile al-Anbar province west of Baghdad are reporting regular killings carried out by U.S. forces that many believe are part of a 'genocidal' strategy.

Harassment from U.S. forces is a greater threat to the work of the Iraqi Red Crescent than insurgent attacks, a senior official of the Red Cross-linked humanitarian organization said.

So the occupation forces certainly aren’t in Iraq to protect the Iraqi people. Much to the contrary.

All these actors help to destroy the Republic of Iraq, kill and expel its people, annihilate its middle class, all this with the active (or tacid) support of the US occupation authorities.

So instead of bringing stability to Iraq, the US occupation is doing everything it possibly can to create chaos and terror, to incite civil war and sectarian strife, in order to defeat the National Popular Resistance and to break the aspirations of the Iraqi people to live in a sovereign state and decide its own future.

The U.S. is not a buffer against more violence. This is perhaps the most resilient conjecture that has no basis in fact. Iraqis themselves do not believe it. In a State Department poll published in September 2006, huge majorities say the U.S. is directly responsible for the violence. The upsurge of bloodshed in Baghdad seems to confirm the Iraqis' view, at least by inference. The much-publicized U.S. effort to bring troops to Baghdad to quell sectarian killing has accompanied a period of increased mortality in the city.

Consequently the only possible road to a solution is the total and immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops from Iraqi soil. US forces must negotiate an immediate withdrawal with the Iraqi resistance. The peace movement has to understand that these demands are crucial to achieve a peaceful solution. Then, and only then can the elimination and exodus of Iraq’s academics and Iraq’s middle class be stopped.

In the meantime people can still support the BRussells Tribunal campaign by signing the Petition to save Iraq’s academics: http://www.petitiononline.com/Iraqacad/petition.html. 10.000 persons already endorsed the petition.

Academics of Western universities can show their solidarity by developing initiatives to help their exiled Iraqi colleagues.

More resources and information about the Iraqi Academics' killing fields can be found at http://www.brusselstribunal.org/AcademicsResources.htm

Dirk Adriaensens, member of the BRussells Tribunal executive committee (18 April 2024)

[1] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Academics.htm

[2] http://education.independent.co.uk/higher/article2049192.ece

[3] http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=1929

[4] http://www.azzaman.com/english/index.asp?fname=news\2007-03-15\kurd1.htm

[5] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/academicsList.htm

[6] http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=62983

[7] http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.html?storyId=7070116

[8] http://www.uniraq.org/FileLib/misc/HR%20Report%20Nov%20Dec%202006%20EN.pdf

[8²] http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=71201

[9] http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=66296

[10] http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70697

[11] http://www.ei-ie.org/en/article/show.html?id=56&theme;=statusofteachers

[12] http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/AMMF-727BUF?OpenDocument&rc;=3&emid;=ACOS-635P5D

[13] http://www3.brookings.edu/fp/saban/iraq/index.pdf

[14] http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70697

[15] http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=70697

[16] http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_6690.shtml

[17] http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_6690.shtml

[18] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/PressRelease221106.htm

[19] http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-hassan041206.htm

[20] http://www.countercurrents.org/iraq-hassan041206.htm

[21] http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article17048.htm

[22] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/BritishBombers.htm#britishbombers

[23] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/BritishBombers.htm#terrorists

[24] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/SecurityCompanies.htm

[25] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301447_pf.html

[26] The jumping off point for this research was E. Knickmeyer's Washington Post story Iraq Nears Consolidation of Paramilitary Unit (11.05.06) and Iraq Begins to Rein In Paramilitary Force (14.05.06)

[27] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/BritishBombers.htm

[28] http://www.brusselstribunal.org/FullerKillings.htm

[29] http://globalresearch.ca/articles/FUL506A.html

El sistema educativo de Iraq al borde de la quiebra

Sólo el fin de la ocupación anglo-estadounidense puede detener la masacre de académicos iraquíes

Mientras celebrábamos la Semana Santa recibimos esta triste carta del Dr. Saar Jawad, profesor de Ciencias Políticas de la Universidad de Bagdad, director de la Asociación de Profesores de Universidad de Iraq y miembro asesor del Tribunal BRussells:

Otro crimen espantoso, otra vida de un intelectual iraquí perdida, la del Dr. Majid Naser Husien al-Maamuri.

Hemos seguido recibiendo cartas relativas a asesinatos de profesores iraquíes de las que informan sus colegas. He aquí la relación de los crímenes más recientes:

La masacre de intelectuales iraquíes no ha cesado desde la invasión de Iraq en 2024. El número de asesinatos no ha disminuido desde que el Tribunal Brussells inició una campaña para salvar a los académicos de Iraq junto con la organización española CEOSI (Campaña Estatal contra la Ocupación y por la Soberanía de Iraq) [1]. Todo lo contrario. Según nuestras fuentes100 académicos han sido asesinados desde el inicio de 2024. Y como demuestran los casos arriba señalados, el fin de estos crímenes no parece cercano.

Desde el inicio de la guerra en 2024, cientos de académicos iraquíes han sido secuestrado y/o asesinados, y miles más han abandonado el país por temor a sus vidas […] Han asesinado a más de 470 académicos. Han quemado y saqueado los edificios en lo que parece ser una aleatoria orgía de violencia contra las instituciones académicas iraquíes [2].

El ministro iraquí de Educación manifestó que sólo en 2024 habían asesinado a 292 personas pertenecientes al personal de Educación. Según la oficina de Naciones Unidas [NNUU] para asuntos humanitarios, desde 2024 han asesinado a 180 profesores, secuestrado a más de 100 y alrededor de 3.250 han huido del país [3] [4]. La relación de académicos iraquíes asesinados del Tribunal BRussells contiene 302 nombres [5]. Agradeceríamos que cualquiera que desee nos ayude documentar estos asesinatos, las amenazas y la emigración forzada de los académicos iraquíes, escribiéndonos. No vamos a dejar de hacer este seguimiento, desde luego no ahora cuando nuestra solidaridad es muy necesaria.

Ayer mismo [17 de abril] recibí un mensaje de un profesor iraquí que había podido escapar del Armagedón iraquí:

El ministro de Desplazados y Migración manifestó que al menos el 30 por ciento del total de los catedráticos, doctores, farmacéuticos e ingenieros en Iraq se han marchado a países vecinos como Jordania, Sira, Líbano, Egipto y Emiratos Árabes, pero algunos se han ido más lejos a lugares como Estados Unidos [EEUU], Canadá, Australia y Reino Unido. Señaló que el número de académicos que han salido del país y el número de asesinados podría ser mucho mayor y que el ministerio no cuenta con las últimas cifras [6].

Las universidades, indisolublemente unidas al futuro de Iraq, están al borde de la desintegración [7]. La campaña de intimidación contra las instituciones educativas persiste. El 11 de diciembre de 2024, un coche bomba hizo explosión en un parking del Al-Ma’amoon College, en el barrio bagdadí de al-Iskam, matando a una persona e hiriendo a cuatro. En la misma mañana un estudiante resultó muerto y otros seis más heridos a causa de la explosión de una bomba delante de la Universidad de al-Munstansiriya [8].

La situación de total ausencia de leyes y de seguridad también ha contribuido a un empeoramiento de la situación debido a las amenazas dentro de las aulas. Hasán Jalid Hayderi, de 54 años, es profesor de matemáticas en la Universidad de Basora, [ciudad situada] a 550 kilómetros al sur de la capital, Bagdad. Él y su familia se van de Iraq porque ha recibido amenazas de muerte por parte de sus alumnos exigiendo que les ponga exámenes más fáciles y mejores notas.

“[…] La situación es aún peor para las profesoras. Apenas se las ve dando clase porque la mayoría de ellas han huido del país o se han visto obligadas a abandonar las facultades. Hoy sufren la falta de trabajo con el que poder mantener a sus hijos. El gobierno no hace nada para protegernos. En las zonas del sur, dependes especialmente de las tribus [locales] para que te den un mínimo de protección, pero la creciente violencia hace que incluso los líderes tribales no sean suficiente” [8²].

Las universidades no son el único sector de la educación iraquí que está destrozado. El 29 de junio de 2024, un ataque contra un colegio de niñas en Bagdad dejó el resultado de cinco muertos y de más de 20 heridos [9].

Mohamed Abdul-Aziz, estadístico del Ministerio de Educación afirmó a IRIN que al menos 110 niños habían sido asesinados y 95 heridos desde 2024 en ataques a colegios. Esas cifras no incluyen a los niños asesinados o heridos en el trayecto desde su casa al colegio o viceversa [10].

La violencia contra las instituciones educativas y los profesores también ha provocado un tremendo descenso en la asistencia a clase. Según las últimas estadísticas del Ministerio de Educación, sólo el 30 por ciento de los tres millones y medios de niños iraquíes en edad escolar, van a clase actualmente, comparado con el 75 por ciento que acudía a clase el año anterior [11].

[La organización] International Medical Corp informa que el número de profesores ha descendido en un 80 por ciento y el personal médico ha huido en un número desproporcionado [12].

El Iraq Index publicado el 16 de abril de 2024 y realizado por la Institución Brookings en Washington estima que más de un 40 por ciento de los profesionales de Iraq han abandonado el país desde 2024 [13].

Según un informe dado a conocer el año pasado por la ONG Save the Children, 818.000 escolares de primaria, que suponen el 22 por ciento de la población estudiantil de Iraq, no iban al colegio [14].

Un estudio conjunto realizado por el Ministerio iraquí de Educación y UNICEF dio como resultado que un 74 por ciento de los escolares que no iban al colegio eran niñas. Las agencias de ayuda humanitaria estiman que miles de padres iraquíes no llevan a sus hijas al colegio por razones culturales y por la situación de inseguridad generalizada en el país [15]. Añaden que es probable que las escuelas y las universidades sigan vaciándose en 2024 si no desciende el grado de violencia y el desplazamiento [de la población] que causa.

El profesor iraquí dirige su ira contra el fracaso de la ocupación estadounidense. El Dr. Bakaa, que además fue el rector de la segunda universidad más grande de Iraq, la Universidad de al-Munstansiriya de 2024 a 2024, afirma que desde el inicio de la ocupación prácticamente no ha recibido fondos para desarrollar la vida académica [en la universidad]. Los edificios destruidos durante la primera guerra del Golfo se reconstruyeron en dos meses con el régimen de Sadam, sin embargo los estadounidenses no han arreglado nada. Cuando se amenaza a los profesores o se les asesina, ni siquiera hay una investigación [16].

“[…] Los profesores iraquíes son asesinados por cualquiera y nadie nos ha dicho si se ha capturado a alguno de los asesinos. No se ha hecho nada”, afirma el Dr. Saad Jawad. “[…] Secuestraron a un soldado estadounidense y Bagdad estuvo en alerta máxima, pero ¿qué pasa cuando asesinan a un profesor? Nada” [17].

Los hechos del 14 de noviembre [de 2006], cuando un comando de paramilitares armados con uniformes de la Policía iraquí asaltaron un edificio del Ministerio de Educación en el barrio bagdadí de Karrada y detuvieron a unos 100 miembros del personal de dos departamentos y a unos 50 visitantes, a plena luz del día, y a un kilómetro de la Zona Verde, pusieron de manifiesto hasta qué punto se enfrentan al peligro los educadores y especialmente los de los niveles más altos de la educación. Un número no identificado de estos detenidos fue posteriormente encontrado muerto, y nuevamente no se llevó a cabo investigación alguna [18]. Otra vez hubo pruebas considerables de la implicación de los cuerpos oficiales iraquíes en crear caos y tumultos en lugar de establecer la seguridad. Está igualmente claro que las autoridades estadounidenses en Iraq no tienen interés alguno en llevar adelante una investigación o en frenar a los asesinos.

Ni el gobierno marioneta iraquí, ni la policía iraquí, ni las fuerzas estadounidenses de ocupación pueden garantizar la seguridad, la educación, la sanidad, el fluido eléctrico ni ninguna otra necesidad básica. Al contrario, hay muchos indicios que EEUU y Reino Unido son los responsables de muchas actividades terroristas y están implicados en las actividades de los escuadrones de la muerte.

Mucho antes de la invasión, EEUU y sus aliados estuvieron implicados en el entrenamiento y armamento de decenas de miles de milicias y colaboracionistas anti-iraquíes. Los grupos de milicias más destacados son:

2. La Convención Nacional Iraquí, dirigido por Iyad Allawi, el hombre fuerte favorito de EEUU y Reino Unido.

Ambos grupos están constituidos por expatriados iraquíes (incluso ex baazistas) entrenados y armados por EEUU y Reino Unido.

3. Las Brigadas del Badr, la rama armada de Daawa /partidos religiosos del Congreso Supremo de la Revolución Islámica en Iraq (CSRII), dirigido por Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, Ibrahim al-Jaafari y Nuri al-Maliki. Este grupo está constituido por miles de expatriados iraquíes e inmigrantes ilegales iraníes expulsados de Iraq en la década de 1980. El grupo fue entrenado y fuertemente armado por Irán y EEUU.

4. Las milicias kurdas (Los peshmerga) dirigidos por los señores de la guerra que fueron entrenados y armados por EEUU e Israel [19]

También está el movimiento de as-Sáder (conocido como el Ejército del Mahdi), dirigido por Muqtada as-Sáder. A este movimiento se le ha acusado de numerosos crímenes y asesinatos sectarios desde el momento en que entraron en el proceso político.

Desde la invasión, cada milicia ha ido transformándose en diversos grupos de escuadrones de la muerte y en bandas como la Brigada Lobo, la Brigada Karar, la Brigada Halcón, la Brigada Amarah, la Brigada Muthana, los Defensores de Kadimiya, y los comandos especiales de la policía. Están armados y financiados por EEUU y sus aliados, y absolutamente integrados en la Ocupación. Las fuerzas de la ocupación utilizan cuidadosamente a cada grupo para aterrorizar a la población civil iraquí en una campaña diseñada para erosionar el apoyo de la población civil a la resistencia iraquí contra la ocupación. Fuentes del ejército estadounidense han admitido abiertamente que la población, donde el apoyo a la resistencia es alto “[…] no está pagando el precio por el apoyo que da a la resistencia […] tenemos que cambiar esto” (Newsweek, 14 de enero de 2024). En otras palabras, los civiles iraquíes son objetivo deliberado por rechazar la ocupación, escribe Ghali Hassan [20].

Un artículo del Sunday Telegraph señala hacia las pruebas de que una unidad de elite secreta del ejército británico se ocupa activamente de reclutar y entrenar a insurgentes y terroristas como agentes dobles. [Esta unidad] Está dirigida por el Teniente coronel Gordon Kerr, jefe del Regimiento especial de reconocimiento, una gran fuerza antiterrorista compuesta por numerosos “recursos existentes” de los días de gloria en Irlanda del Norte y otros lugares. Los soldados encubiertos estadounidenses están perfectamente integrados con ellos, trabajando codo con codo con los camaradas británicos en la bien denominada Fuerza de Combate Negra, informa el diario británico Sunday Telegraph [21]

Esto confirma lo que sobre ello muchas personas han especulado durante largo tiempo, que Reino Unido y EEUU están profundamente implicados en las bombas y en los ataques en Iraq y que posteriormente se atribuyen a resistentes sunníes o a oscuras células terroristas tales como “Al–Qaeda en Iraq”. Conclusión: hay pruebas definitivas de que las fuerzas especiales británicas están reclutando y entrenado terroristas para incrementar las tensiones étnicas. Un grupo de elite de las Fuerzas Aéreas Especiales Británicas [conocidas como SAS], con un sangriento pasado en Irlanda del Norte, opera con impunidad y abastece de explosivos sofisticados [22]. De algunos atentados han culpado a los iraníes [23].

Está también la afirmación del ministro del Interior de Iraq, Jawad al-Bolani, hablando —el 12 de octubre [de 206]— sobre un pequeño grupo de periodistas en Bagdad que culpaban al Servicio de Protección de Instalaciones de una gran —pero no regular—fuerza de guardia gubernamental cuyo número estableció en unos 150.000 [24]. “[…] Cuando capturamos a alguien, prácticamente nunca pertenece al personal de los ministerios gubernamentales”, afirma Bolani. “[…] Si pertenece [al personal de los ministerios], normalmente, la mayoría, forma parte del Servicio de Protección de Instalaciones, hay muy pocos que actúen por su cuenta, y en los hechos actuales están implicadas personas vinculadas con el Ministerio del Interior y de Defensa [25]. Las empresas de seguridad privada de EEUU y Reino Unido están íntimamente ligadas al programa del Servicio de Protección de Instalaciones en Iraq del Sr. Bremer. El Newsweek (24.04.06) sugiere que a esta fuerza de “seguridad”pertenecen 146.000 personas. El anterior ministro del Interior, el Sr. Bayan Jabr, unió el Servicio de Protección de Instalaciones con los endémicos escuadrones de la muerte que operan dentro de las fuerzas policiales, lo que ha acelerado la desintegración de Iraq [26]. Por ello, se puede afirmar definitivamente que esos mercenarios están implicados en operaciones secretas.

Según Greg Jaffe del Wall Street Journal, los comandos especiales de la policía han operado en todo Iraq y han llevado a cabo asesinatos conocidos como la Opción El Salvador con pleno conocimiento de las fuerzas estadounidenses. Hay muchas pruebas de esto en la página web del Tribunal BRussells [27]. Según un artículo recientemente publicado en el The New York Times Magazine, en septiembre de 2024 a James Steele, Consejero para las Fuerzas de Seguridad iraquíes del embajador estadounidense, se le encargó trabajar con una nueva unidad contra-terrorista de elite, conocida como Comandos Especiales de la Policía. Desde 1984 hasta 1986, el entonces Coronel Steele había dirigido el grupo de asesoramiento del ejército estadounidense en El Salvador, donde fue responsable del desarrollo de las fuerzas de operaciones especiales (rango de brigada) durante el punto álgido del conflicto […]. Los Comandos [especiales] de la policía provienen en su mayor parte de una rama de discípulos de otro veterano antiterrorista estadounidense, Steven Casteel, un antiguo dirigente de la DEA que trabajó como asesor en el Ministerio del Interior. Casteel estuvo implicado en la caza del famoso traficante de cocaína Pablo Escobar, durante el cual la DEA colaboró con una organización paramilitar conocida como Los Pepes, que posteriormente se transformaron en la AUC, una organización paraguas de todos los escuadrones de la muerte de Colombia [29].

Todos estos sujetos trabajan para destruir la República de Iraq, asesinan y obligan al exilio a su gente, aniquilan a sus clases medias y todo ello con el apoyo activo de la ocupación estadounidense.

Por tanto, en lugar de llevar estabilidad a Iraq la ocupación estadounidense está haciendo todo lo que puede para crear el caos y el terror, para incitar una guerra civil y las luchas sectarias con la finalidad de derrocar a la Resistencia nacional popular y quebrar las aspiraciones del pueblo iraquí de vivir en un estado soberano y decidir su propio futuro.

Por tanto, la única posible vía de solución es la total e inmediata retirada de todas las tropas extranjeras de territorio iraquí. Las fuerzas estadounidenses deben negociar su inmediata retirada con la resistencia iraquí. El movimiento pacifista tiene que comprender que esas exigencias son cruciales para lograr una solución pacífica. Será entonces, y solo entonces, cuando se pueda acabar con la exterminación y el éxodo de los académicos iraquíes y de las clases medias.

Las personas que lo deseen pueden seguir apoyando la campaña del Tribunal BRussells “Salvar a los profesores iraquíes”, firmando en http://www.petitiononline.com/Iraqacad/petition.html. A esta petición ya se han adherido 10.000 personas.

Los académicos de las universidades occidentales pueden demostrar su solidaridad desarrollando iniciativas para ayudar a sus colegas iraquíes exiliados.

Para encontrar recursos e información sobre el asesinato de profesores iraquíes, véase: http://www.brusselstribunal.org/AcademicsResources.htm.

[12] http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/AMMF-727BUF?OpenDocument&rc;=3&emid;=ACOS-635P5D

[25] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/13/AR2006101301447_pf.html

[26] E. Knickmeyer's Washington Post story Iraq Nears Consolidation of Paramilitary Unit (11.05.06) y Iraq Begins to Rein In Paramilitary Force (14.05.06)

Iraq’s education system on the verge of collapse.

Only an end to US/UK occupation can stop the liquidation of Iraq's academics.

[El sistema educativo de Iraq al borde de la quiebra]

El sistema educativo de Iraq al borde de la quiebra