Editorial
Stop assassination of Iraq’s elite
Since 2003, Iraq’s death toll continues to rise. More than 250 Iraqi scientists and academics have been assassinated in disturbing circumstances, paying with their lives for their commitment to knowledge and culture.
Iraq’s reconstruction, for which the international community has agreed to pay large amounts of money, is still on hold: the central issue of human capital is still being ignored.
Since its creation in March 2006, the International Committee of Solidarity with Iraqi Scholars has been working with Iraqi authorities, neighbouring countries, civil society and international organizations, in order to come up with concrete solutions to help the threatened career.
With the assassination of Iraq’s elite, which is depriving the country of its main asset, we launched on 16 March 2006, in Geneva, Paris and New York, an international call for the defence and protection of Iraqi academics and scientists, asking Iraqi authorities, multinational forces and other players involved to take all possible measures to ensure secure and good working conditions for Iraqi students so that they could benefit from free and independent access to knowledge.
The International Committee of Solidarity with Iraqi Scholars and their elected representatives in all universities in the country welcome the interest shown by the international community to the daily struggle of thousands of Iraqi scientists
--Hasni ABIDI
Director of CERMAM