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> >Morning Star 20.04ı02 >Intellectual Genocide. >Felicity Arbuthnot > >Palestine and Iraq have much in common. The desert slaughter - misnamed a >war - of 1991, left Iraq: reduced to a pre-industrial age for a >considerable time to comeı, according to the UN Special Rapporteur, who >visited barely a month after the end of hostilities. Palestine too, lies in >ruins. In both cases, the silence of those who could exert pressure has been >truly deafening. > >That history will slaughter those responsibleı - to use the words of Denis >Halliday, distinguished UN Diplomat and UN Under Secretary General, who >resigned in disgust as UN Co-ordinator in Iraq, citing the destruction of >an entire nationı - will be of little comfort to the dead, maimed, >disposessed, bereaved and dying of both countries. However, as the silent >slaughter continues in Iraq, resulting from the worldıs most draconian UN >embargo and another continues in Palestine at the hands of Israel - whilst >possibly the most pathetic incumbant UN Secretary General ever, bleats >apologetically about restraintı, in an expensive suit and the quiestest of >voices. Priorities, however, are not alone food, water, medicines - they >are what Hallidayıs successor, Count Hans von Sponeck, an equally >distinguished diplomat cited as: intellectual genocide.ı > >Palestine and Iraq have the highest number of PhıDıs in the Middle East, >women and men educated without discrimination. In both countries the >education system has been targetted and dismantled. As the west crows of >restoring education in Afganistan, it is silent on decimating it in a part >of the world where writing, algebra, mathematics, domestic law and record >keeping began. > >Iraq, prior to the embargo was awarded, two years running, a unique accolade >from UNESCO. The education system was globally unparallelled in that a child >could be born into abject poverty, of illiterate parents and emerge from >this free, high quality system (including University) as anything he or she >wished to be. Western Post graduate courses were paid for by the Iraqi >government, resulting in rounded east-west expertise. > >With the onset of the UN embargo on Hiroshima Day 1990, all educational >materials to Iraq were halted. Blackboards, pencils, pens, course books, >medical journals, computers, even paper. A doctor qualifying today will be >twelve years out of date - he or she will still be using 1989 materials, >apart from the small amount taken in by occasional sanctions breakers. > >When the UN Weapons Inspectors (UNSCOM) raided the Science Laboratory at >Baghdadıs famous, formerly resplendantly > equipped University (built by the Gulbenkian oil foundation in the 1970ıs >as a result of an oil deal, the Inspectors laughed at itıs sorry state - >then threw out the few remaining books. (ED - I HAVE THE UN VIDEO) > >The language laboratory is silent. Computers and visual aids long dead, >denying a western orientated society the ability to perfect western >languages - in a society where all university students are taught in english >in order to enable them to access overseas post graduate courses. > >An abiding memory is visiting the University and talking to the Professor of >Literature, a passionate, elegant educationalist, who had been a >distinguished visiting Professor, to a number of US and UK Universities. He >searched for the words to explain the magnitude of the educational >decimation under the embargo. Education for him - as in all Iraq and >Palestine - was not a profession, it was a burning passion - the learning >young, where ever they were, were a countryıs future. > >The tweed jacketed Professor spoke better english than I and personified >passion, pride and dignity. As I thanked him and offered my hand, he >clutched it, in both of his and said: I beg you, please, send us paper, >send us books, send us pens and pencils ... I beg you, I beg you.ı Four >months later, he was dead. All those who knew him, said he died of a broken >heart - he could no longer give his students the wherewithall to equip them >for whatever they chose in life. > > In Palestine, the blockade of the great Beir Zeit University, has been >little reported. Roads bulldozed, students and academics, forced to scramble >over mountains of rubble and take circuitous routes to reach. Frequently it >was impossible. > >Now, along with lives and homes, all educational infrastructure has been >detonated by the Israeli Defence Force. The seven Palestinian Universitites, >painstakingly re-opened, community outreaching, in a community where one >third of the three million population is under fifteen and education a >cornerstone, are under threat. > >The Ministry of Education in Ramallah - a walled compound - was reportedly >attacked by thirty Israeli tanks, despite the employees offers for the >building to be inspected. Soldiers destroyed outer and inner doors, safes, >filing cabinets, computers, hard disks, files, students records were >damaged, or reduced to rubble.ı As with Iraq: audo visual equipment and >other learning tools were taken and destroyed.ı > >Some one hundred and sixty six schools have been destroyed or damaged, three >have been taken over by the Israeli military but of the rest (one thousand >six hundred and ninety eight in the West Bank and six hundred and forty two >in Gaza) little is known since independent observers are unable to gain >access, often threatened with their life by the IDF. > >State of the art educational television stations (such as in Ramallah - >part of Al Quds University ) have been invaded and destroyed >and the international donor community is owed nearly four thousand million >dollars in that which has been destroyed - donated in aid for Palestineıs >educational system. > >As with Iraq, nothing will repay the destroyed future of Palestine - young >denied their education - and nothing will heal their trauma, the enormity of >which, will only be known when the full truth finally comes out. Do Britain >and America fear educated Middle East populations? > >As for the limp, impotent leadership of the United Nations: Rest in Peace. > > >------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> >Buy Stock for $4 >and no minimums. >FREE Money 2002. >http://us.click.yahoo.com/orkH0C/n97DAA/ySSFAA/WfTolB/TM >---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> > >Campaign to End Iraq Sanctions - Ireland >Website: http://www.endiraqsanctions.net; >email: info@endiraqsanction.net > >To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: >no-sanctions-unsubscribe@egroups.com > > > >Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. 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