Education Under Attack - UNESCO Islamabad

Case studiesIraq: Gunning for the intellectualsOn 25 February 2007, a suicide bombertriggered a ball-bearing packed chargeamid a crowd of mainly Shiite studentsat a college in Baghdad, killing 42 peopleand injuring 55 others. 41 Most of thevictims were students.Witnesses said a woman dressed in achador (Islamic veil) and holding plasticsacks carried out the attack at MustansiriyaUniversity, detonating the bomb at thegates of the Business and Administrationdepartment as students entered to sitmid-term exams. The University hadalready been warned to close its doors. 42The main campus of the same university was hit by a series of bombings that killed100 students in January.Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of UNESCO, expressed his shock and anger overthe attack. He said: “I strongly condemn this barbarous act. The systematic targetingof the Iraqi education system, its schools, universities, teachers and students, mustnot be allowed to continue.” 43But the savagery of the attack was not out of the ordinary in today’s Iraq. Sincethe beginning of last year, militants have stepped up efforts to drive out Baghdad’sremaining intellectuals and middle classes with a wave of death threats, intimidation,© UNICEF/HQ03-0236/Patrick AndradeIraq: Boys unpack live ammunition in aclassroom filled with leftover war material atthe Aisha Girls’ Primary School in the Adhamianeighbourhood in Baghdad, the capital.41 Brian Murphy, Associated Press, ‘Shiite College Bombed’, Denver Post, 26 February, 2007; AFP, 26February 2007, Khaleej Times online, ‘Baghdad College bomber a Woman’.42 Daily Telegraph, 26 February, 2007, ’40 die as bombers target Iraq students’43 UNESCO Press Release No 2007-17, Paris, 27 February 2007, ‘UNESCO Director-GeneralCondemns Deadly Attack on Baghdad College and Urges Increased Protection for Iraq’s EducationSystem’.30