Dear All,

Please don't send in messages like this to the "german-studies" list.  
It's not what the list is for.

Thanks,

Duncan Large
List Owner
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Date sent:      	Mon, 13 Mar 2006 09:51:33 -0000
Send reply to:  	Andrew Jameson2 <[log in to unmask]>
From:           	Andrew Jameson2 <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:        	Appeal to save Iraq's academics
To:             	[log in to unmask]

Iraq's academics are being targeted by insurgents and also by our own
occupation forces. You will be horrified to read what our Iraqi colleagues
say on the website. 
www.brusselstribunal.org/Academics.htm
Please consider signing the petition.
http://new.petitiononline.com/Iraqacad/petition-sign.html
Andrew Jameson, Malvern Meeting, Society of Friends (Quakers).
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URGENT APPEAL TO SAVE IRAQ'S ACADEMICS.  
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. 

This petition was launched by the BRussells Tribunal and is already endorsed
by CEOSI (Spain), the Portuguese hearing of the WTI, Iraktribunal.de
(Germany), the Swedish Antiwar committee, the IAC (USA), the International
Association of Middle East Studies (IAMES), the German Middle East Studies
Association (DAVO) and the European Association for Middle Eastern Studies
(EURAMES), and several personalities, like Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, Tony
Benn, Eduardo Galeano, John Pilger and Michael Parenti. See the list of
endorsers. 

See the call for action underneath and more information on
www.brusselstribunal.org/Academics.htm 
____________________________________________________________________

Call for action to save Iraq's Academics  
  
1. We call upon all people, especially academics and students, to help end
the silence that surrounds the ongoing crime of the assassination of Iraqi
academics and the destruction of Iraqi's educational infrastructure, and
support Iraqi academics' right and hope to live in an independent,
democratic Iraq, free of foreign occupation and hegemony.  

2. We urge that academic institutions and organisations declare solidarity
with their Iraqi colleagues.  

3. We urge that academics forge links between Iraqi educators, both in exile
and in Iraq, and universities worldwide.  

4. We urge that student organisations link with Iraqi student organisations.

5. We urge that educators mobilise colleagues and concerned citizens to take
up the cause of the salvation of Iraq's intellectual wealth, by organising
seminars, teach-ins and forums on the plight of Iraq's academics.  

The world's academics and intellectuals must act now to save the lives of
their colleagues in Iraq. 
  
[The BRussells Tribunal, in cooperation with other organisations, has
started to build a network of contacts and raise public awareness and can
provide information and support to individuals and groups who wish to
mobilise on this issue. We are able to act as a depository and hub for this
campaign] 
  
http://www.brusselstribunal.org/Academics.htm 
----------------------------------------------------