GLOBAL: Academic freedom reports international

Iraqi academics were once again the target of violent attacks by insurgents in a new wave of killings. According to the Brussels Tribunal on Iraq, at least 453 academics have been killed since 2003. In Iran, students have protested against growing security force presence at Tehran University, and the University Bahr students in Pakistan have gone against the dismissal of a professor who criticized university policies. A student has been jailed for three months in Sudan for participating in demonstrations against the government, and the students in the lesbian and gay US Christian universities have been stirring for official acceptance.

IRAQ: New offensive against the elite academic

Iraqi academics were once again the target of violent attacks by insurgents in a new wave of killings, United Press International reported on 11 April.

A dozen academics, researchers, scientists and other professionals and journalists have been killed in recent months. Apparently they were killed by insurgents or sectarian death squads. Few had known political affiliations.

Academics have become increasingly concerned about the rise in violence, and expressed its concerns public. Hickman Jalap, chief of the International Society of Iraqi scientists, criticized Prime Minister Nora al-Malice and his Shiite-dominated government was unable to protect them.

Al-Mustansiriya University, a leading university in Iraq, has been the target of recent attacks on particular academics and students.

Mohammed Alwen, dean of the faculty of medicine and a prominent surgeon, was killed March 29 by a bomb that exploded under his car. Said Abdul Minim, director of molecular research department, was murdered on 3 April.

Since 2007, more than 325 students and staff of Al-Mustansiriya University killed or maimed in violent attacks.

Under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi higher education system was well seen, despite the repression of the regime.

Since 2004 and the beginning of the insurgency in Iraq, the country's academics have been the target of systematic death by gangs, including Islamic fanatics, wanting to eliminate the elite, either killing them or pushing them into exile.

As a result of this climate of fear and death, hundreds of academics and scientists, as well as journalists, doctors and lawyers, have fled Iraq to avoid being killed.

According to the Brussels Tribunal on Iraq, at least 453 academics have been killed in Iraq since 2003.