Associate Professor of Criminology Dusan Bjelic returned from the Iraqi-American Academic Symposium at the University of Baghdad Jan. 18.
“This was a fact-finding mission. The first fact we found is that there are human beings [in Iraq],” he said. Bjelic said war would not be just against Saddam Hussein but against the people. He wants to put a human face on the Iraqi conflict by describing his findings abroad.
Bjelic and 31 other academics of various backgrounds and fields from across the United States traveled to Iraq to meet with Iraqi counterparts at the University of Baghdad. Along with the group traveled human rights advocate Bianca Jagger, ex-wife of rock star Mick Jagger.
Bjelic left last Thursday for Turkey where he and 2000 others worldwide will address the Turkish parliament, urging them not to allow the United States to use their country for war-related activities.
After a royal reception from the administrators and professors at the University of Baghdad, Bjelic and the group took a closely monitored and choreographed tour of hospitals, bomb shelters, and the city of Baghdad. The hosts at the University also had a series of presentations examining how war affected Iraq in the past.
Bjelic described the most notable presentation which was about the causal relationship between uranium from bombs and cancer and leukemia in children, believed to be the reason for Iraq having the highest number of leukemia-stricken children in the world. The presentation described several other side effects and congenital malformations associated with the bombings. These conditions did not start to appear until four or five years after the bombings of Iraq in the early 1990s.
The most gruesome of these malformations is a condition called cyclopia in which a child is born (or more typically stillborn) with a single eye on its forehead, a protruding proboscis-like nose above it, and often no mouth. The condition is extremely rare, but one town in Iraq alone reported three cases last year.
After five days of this choreography, the group told their hosts they wanted to go wherever they wanted. The large group then broke into smaller groups to seek out and speak privately with several different people or groups including UNICEF, the minister of foreign affairs, the speaker of the house, and political science professors at the University.
Bjelic lived under an oppressive regime in Serbia. “I know how people speak,” he said. “They speak in private.”
“Less formally,” he said, “they see the necessity for change, like a pluralistic society, human rights, civil liberties, and a democratic society.”
Bjelic and his group also met with Iraqi government officials and gave them suggestions about these basic societal needs.
In informal meetings, Iraqi academics told Bjelic and his group they did not want war to happen; however, they said “it would not be desirable for the United States to just walk away.”
Bjelic, among other academics, said all non-military sanctions should be removed while the United States keeps pressure on the regime to open up to a free election. He also said Shi’ites and Kurds need to be brought back into the political process.
Cult of personality
Bjelic described the primitive forms of propaganda in Iraq, which he found amusing. “It is very obvious and funny for us American propaganda snobs,” Bjelic said.
Leaving the airport in Baghdad, from the plane families can see a giant portrait of Saddam on the side of the building, waving goodbye as they take off.
Portraits of Saddam are often at the sides of roads, featuring him pointing in the direction one is driving.
In the courtroom, the portrait is of Saddam dressed as a judge. In hospitals, Saddam is dressed as a doctor, holding babies.
“He’s a Barbie who can be dressed for any occasion,” Bjelic said. “He sets the mood. He’s waving to a family on an airplane, he’s a good doctor, a good judge, and professor. I found that funny.”
Bjelic compared blatant Iraqi propaganda and the subtler American version as “Yugo propaganda versus Cadillac propaganda,” respectively.
Bianca Jagger
Bjelic met Jagger in Boston while waiting for their flight to Jordan. He became friends with her and learned about her humanitarian efforts.
“She’s a very ordinary person,” he said. “She said she would like to teach political science.”
Bjelic said Jagger is particularly concerned with the condition of women and children around the world. Lately, he said, she has been very involved with abolishing adolescent prostitution and what is known as “sacrificial prostitution.”
Sacrificial prostitution is most common in Calcutta, India, and South Africa. Some people believe men with AIDS can have sex with virgins, and the girl’s virginity will heal the disease. Jagger told Bjelic of six-month-old babies raped by men with AIDS who believe the myth as well as young girls in Calcutta kidnapped from their homes for the purpose of sacrificial prostitution.
Bjelic told Jagger about Maine and USM, and he asked if she would be interested in teaching a course in human rights for a semester. She told Bjelic she would if invited.
Bjelic said Jagger is a very dedicated woman, and her presence would benefit all departments.
Oxycontin or Afghanistan?
As Bjelic drove back to Maine from Logan Airport in Boston, he saw a young man hitchhiking on I-95. His car had broken down.
Bjelic gave the man a ride. The man was a soldier on leave from duty in Afghanistan. He told Bjelic how he served in the U.S. Army in order to attend college. He spent the last six months in the war-torn country.
“He was a regular Maine kid,” Bjelic said. “He wants to go to college but he has to go to the military … to get what others get handed to them. That is why it is a bad idea to eliminate the draft. That keeps people against war. Otherwise middle class kids wouldn’t pay attention.”
Bjelic said the young man’s family was abandoned by his father, and that they were poor but hard-working people.
“‘That’s my life, take it or leave it,’ he said. And he took it. Many kids don’t, considering all the drug-related deaths recently. Oxycontin or Afghanistan,” concluded Bjelic.
Elise Adams can be contacted at [email protected]