Despite the multifaceted crisis facing Syria and the Civilian-Targeting US Sanctions, Damascus University excels
Franklin Lamb
Damascus
Students everywhere are special people and this observer has discovered
that Syrian students are among the very best.
Meeting and interviewing students again this past week, before and
following a frank and enlightening discussion with Prof. Dr. Mohammad Amer
Al-Mardini, the indefatigable President of Damascus University, about the
situation of the students and current instruction at the University, one
cannot ,even as a foreigner, fail to feel pride in Syrian students.
Good meeting places, among others on campus, include "outdoor cafes" --
a "street student union' of sorts -- consisting of a few chairs and portable
tablets. They are scattered among the dozens of vendor stalls that line "DU
Boulevard" outside the main DU campus in central Damascus. Here students
can buy everything from school supplies to mobile phones to snacks. It's
a perfect place to meet and chat with students.
One learns from them about the many effects on the education system
in Syria of the US-led sanctions. Some argue that the Obama administration
actually fuels the current crisis with its sanctions and achieves the opposite
result of what the White House and its allies claim they are seeking.
These freewheeling discussions leave a foreigner with a reminder why this
student body ranks among the best in the World.
How Damascus University has to date reacted to this crisis evidences the
same status.
Currently there are more than 200,000 full-time and "open-learning' students at
Damascus University, the 6th largest in the World. The core institutes of the
University were established in 1901; they were the medicine and law institutes
that formed the basis of the Syrian University that was established in 1923. In
1958, it got its current name, Damascus University when Aleppo University was
established.
All of the students are feeling in effects of the
Obama Administration's harsh civilian-targeting sanctions and many are
increasingly in the cross-hairs of the "humanitarian sanctions which Washington
and Brussels claim "exempt food, medicines and medical supplies" and therefore
"should be considered humane."
Among DU Faculties most severely affected by the US-led sanctions are the
Science Departments and the Medical and Nursing schools according to
administration and student sources. Chemicals used in various science
classes, medicines and medical equipment cannot be found as before and if
some are brought in from Europe or elsewhere, the University often has to
pay four times the normal price.
Utah's Brigham Young University gained the respect and appreciation of
many in Syria for its shipments to DU's nursing school of medicines and
equipment and even "model doll babies" which in Syria are used in baby-care
classes. All are now banned by the US sanctions which claim to exempt
medical equipment and medicines.
Damascus University, with its 36 specialized faculties and five higher institutes
is no banking-hours institution and its proven commitment is to give the
highest possible quality education to as many students as possible. Syria's
largest university is now open for classes 365 days a year minus a few holidays
and a few short breaks for her professors and overworked staff, partly due to
the increased number of students arriving from across Syria. The DU
administration and faculty work with faculties in war zones to guarantee
students can continue their studies without missing key exams required for
semester advancement. Still, about 20%
of college level students are unable to attend due to transportation and
displacement problems.
One direct and predictable severe impact of the US-led civilian-targeting
sanctions in Syria is that they have essentially stranded approximately 700
Damascus University students in Europe and half a dozen in the US, forcing some
to take leaves of absence and find jobs to survive. This is because, as is well
known among the US Treasury Department "craftsmen" who devise the sanctions,
these students are no longer able to receive funds from Damascus University to
pay for their foreign tuition or living
expenses because the banking system is suffering from sanctions and money
transfer are no longer possible. More than 1500 Syrian students from other
institution of higher learning are similarly stranded as a direct result of the
US-led sanctions.
Never the less, Damascus University keeps its commitment to pay the students their tuition fees and their living cost as they are on full scholarships. Currently, parents must pick up the funds from the University accountant and find a way to transfer them. Should they decide to send it via Western Union, for example, a new "sanctions surcharge" of 70 euros for every 1,000 euros sent, is demanded by WU and other money transfer agencies, suggesting another form of war profiteering.
To make things even more difficult for the students,
foreign universities which might
consider lending their stranded Syrian students
tuition money or might even consider aiding them with scholarships or
a grant have been "chilled" and are
backing-off because these institutions do
not want to be accused of "sanction-busting" by the US
Treasury hound dogs.
Few food or medicine suppliers -- given the sanctions' language, the meanings
of which is uncertain even for their own lawyers, some of whom have declared it
incomprehensible -- want to risk the wrath of the US Treasury Department and be
slapped with severe penalties including very expensive fines by dealing with
anyone in Syria.
One of the US Treasury hound dogs is David Cohen, Under-Secretary for
Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. Late last month, Mr. Cohen made a trip
to the region (including Israel) to brief allies and businesses as well as
NGO's
"to be sure the sanctions were biting hard" to use a favorite phase of UN
Ambassador Susan Rice. The Obama administration, reportedly frustrated by
the fact that its multi-tiered sanctions have failed to topple the governments
of Syria and Iran, has been attempting to find and plug loopholes in the
sanctions and are intensifying warnings to the international community not
to mess with the US Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI) or
the Office of Financial Assets Control (OFAC) by getting all wobbly-kneed
and going soft on full sanction enforcement.
Meanwhile, Syria's Department of Education is joining the struggle to shield
Syria's education institutions and is being joined by various student
associations. To date, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education have not
cut their substantial disbursements to schools and faculties. Tuition remains
among the lowest in the world (almost free; 5 US $ a year with the current
exchange rate) at Damascus University, which also provides free housing for
15,000 students. The DU administration is currently under pressure to find more
dormitory space for those needing housing.
Still, despite the conflict, even in Daraa near the Jordanian border where the current crisis started, DU's campus continues to function.
Many DU students are also volunteering with
assisting Syrian primary
schools which urgently need their help. According to a December 2012
UNICEF education assessment of primary schools in Syria -- at least 2,400
schools have been damaged or destroyed, including 772 in Idlib (50 per cent
of the total), 300 in Aleppo and another 300 in Deraa. Over 1,500 schools
are being used as shelters for displaced persons. The Damascus University
community has also taken on the humanitarian challenge of assisting sister
educational institutions that have been affected by the current crisis
including campuses in Homs, Deir al Zur and Aleppo, among others.
This observer has met several Damascus University
students among the 9,000 volunteers,
including Palestinian refugees, who are donating their time working with the
Syria Red Crescent Society (SARCS). Many DU students are also volunteering by
assisting at primary schools.
The grim reality for Syrian families, hospitals, health care facilities and now
university students and educational institutions across the country is that the
claimed "humanitarian" exemptions for food, medicine and medical
equipment is little more than News-Speak.
Rather than target the people who represent Syria's future leaders, the
White House would do better to cancel its sanctions and send Secretary Kerry
to Damascus to meet face-to-face with the Syrian people and government
and demonstrate a real American interest in stopping the bloodshed.
Armored vehicles and assorted "non-lethal aid" to one side in this conflict
will only prolong the killing, as any student here will attest.
