** Dahr Jamail's Iraq Dispatches **

*URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE IRAQ'S ACADEMICS. ** Sign the petition online
<http://www.petitiononline.com/Iraqacad/petition.html> ***

A little known aspect of the tragedy engulfing Iraq is the systematic
liquidation of the country's academics. Even according to conservative
estimates, over 250 educators have been assassinated, and many hundreds
more have disappeared. With thousands fleeing the country in fear for
their lives, not only is Iraq undergoing a major brain drain, the
secular middle class - which has refused to be co-opted by the US
occupation - is being decimated, with far-reaching consequences for the
future of Iraq.

Already on July 14, 2004, veteran correspondent Robert Fisk reported
from Iraq that: /"University staff suspect that there is a campaign to
strip Iraq of its academics, to complete the destruction of Iraq's
cultural identity which began when the American army entered Baghdad."
/
The wave of assassinations appears non-partisan and non-sectarian,
targeting women as well as men, and is countrywide. It is indiscriminate
of expertise: professors of geography, history and Arabic literature as
well as science are among the dead. Not one individual has been
apprehended in connection with these assassinations.

According to the United Nations University, some 84 per cent of Iraq's
institutions of higher education have already been burnt, looted or
destroyed. Iraq's educational system used to be among the best in the
region; one of the country's most important assets was its well-educated
people.

This situation is a mirror of the occupation as a whole: a catastrophe
of staggering proportions unfolding in a climate of criminal disregard.
As an occupying power, and under international humanitarian law, final
responsibility for protecting Iraqi citizens, including academics, lies
with the United States.

With this petition we want to break the silence.

1. We appeal to organisations which work to enforce or defend
international humanitarian law to put these crimes on the agenda.

2. We request that an independent international investigation be
launched immediately to probe these extrajudicial killings. This
investigation should also examine the issue of responsibility to clearly
identify who is accountable for this state of affairs. We appeal to the
special rapporteur on summary executions at UNHCHR in Geneva.

Link Here