TIKRIT, Iraq –The re-opening of the University of Tikrit in December 2015 was the main reason many civilians decided to return home before there was even a council to handle the city’s daily administration, says Waad Raoof, the university’s president.
“Some 20,000 families came back with the students, and even at a time that Tikrit did not yet have a working council,” said Raoof.
The university campus was badly damaged in the fight for the city’s liberation from the Islamic State (ISIS) in April 2015.
ISIS briefly occupied the campus and when the Iraqi army recaptured months later and turned it into a base, the radical group made the place the target of its daily attacks.
Not much of the ruin is visible now, though some buildings are still partly destroyed and others show bullet holes and bomb scars. Most have been reconstructed, repaired, cleaned and painted.
The gardens and cafés are once again bustling with activity, with female students dressed in colourful dresses and scarves – a far cry from the black dress ISIS had once obliged women like them to wear.
In his office in one of the repaired buildings, Raoof proudly recounts how, once the mines left by ISIS had been cleared, he managed with his team and the UN-organisation UNDP to get the university up and running again within two months.
“We started cleaning and rebuilding in October, and were able to reopen in December, with only a hundred students. Within ten days, more joined. Now only 2,000 of our students have not returned because they are still living as refugees elsewhere,” he recalled.
During the occupation of his city, Raoof kept the university going in Kirkuk just over 100 kilometres north of Tikrit.
His first priority was to create an opportunity for students to take their exams of 2014, as ISIS interrupted those not only in Tikrit, but also in Mosul and other Iraqi towns.
“For this reason, the ministry of Education opened nine centres. I supervised a big one in Kirkuk. Of our 24,000 students, 23,300 took the exams there, even though we had big problems in getting them all out, as the roads near Samarra were not safe,” said professor Raoof.
Getting the assistance they needed from Kirkuk University—a sister university—Raoof himself was the first to move to the city followed by his colleagues where they started afternoon classes.
In December 2015, he was able to get his staff, students and classes back to their home university and education authorities in Baghdad allowed him to start the academic year two months late. Now, all 22 colleges are functioning again as well as dormitories for 5,000 students from elsewhere in Iraq.
Raoof and all of his professors defied ISIS and left and he defends his students, saying, “If people stayed in Tikrit, it does not mean they were with Daesh.”
“The vision here changed too, already during the occupation,” Raoof said of people’s expectations and later view of ISIS.
Some in Tikrit—Saddam’s hometown—had expected ISIS to bring back the old regime, and were disappointed to discover that they were only offered an Islamic Caliphate.
Many left and some stayed because they were too poor, or unwilling to leave their properties behind.
“If anyone was with Daesh, we cannot allow them to study here,” Waad Raoof stresses. “But we know we have nobody who worked with them.”
Though brief was the ISIS occupation, the era has left a legacy of unease and distrust between those who fled and those who stayed. Raoof wants his university to play a role in keeping a peaceful co-existence.
“We have an active program stimulating dialogue against the extremist Islam, and we ask the students to live together, to be the new generation,” he said. “Now many people understand what has happened when Daesh came.”
For UNDP, the success of restarting Tikrit is a model to repeat in other cities liberated from ISIS. The policy is to combine bringing back public services with re-opening universities, hospitals, and job opportunities to make families return.
“My advice is, to other cities after Daesh: when services are back, some people come back. Once you offer work, also in rebuilding, that will attract many people, and so will the reopening of universities in for instance Ramadi and Mosul,” Raoof suggested.
“Some 20,000 families came back with the students, and even at a time that Tikrit did not yet have a working council,” said Raoof.
The university campus was badly damaged in the fight for the city’s liberation from the Islamic State (ISIS) in April 2015.
ISIS briefly occupied the campus and when the Iraqi army recaptured months later and turned it into a base, the radical group made the place the target of its daily attacks.
Not much of the ruin is visible now, though some buildings are still partly destroyed and others show bullet holes and bomb scars. Most have been reconstructed, repaired, cleaned and painted.
The gardens and cafés are once again bustling with activity, with female students dressed in colourful dresses and scarves – a far cry from the black dress ISIS had once obliged women like them to wear.
In his office in one of the repaired buildings, Raoof proudly recounts how, once the mines left by ISIS had been cleared, he managed with his team and the UN-organisation UNDP to get the university up and running again within two months.
“We started cleaning and rebuilding in October, and were able to reopen in December, with only a hundred students. Within ten days, more joined. Now only 2,000 of our students have not returned because they are still living as refugees elsewhere,” he recalled.
During the occupation of his city, Raoof kept the university going in Kirkuk just over 100 kilometres north of Tikrit.
His first priority was to create an opportunity for students to take their exams of 2014, as ISIS interrupted those not only in Tikrit, but also in Mosul and other Iraqi towns.
“For this reason, the ministry of Education opened nine centres. I supervised a big one in Kirkuk. Of our 24,000 students, 23,300 took the exams there, even though we had big problems in getting them all out, as the roads near Samarra were not safe,” said professor Raoof.
Getting the assistance they needed from Kirkuk University—a sister university—Raoof himself was the first to move to the city followed by his colleagues where they started afternoon classes.
In December 2015, he was able to get his staff, students and classes back to their home university and education authorities in Baghdad allowed him to start the academic year two months late. Now, all 22 colleges are functioning again as well as dormitories for 5,000 students from elsewhere in Iraq.
Raoof and all of his professors defied ISIS and left and he defends his students, saying, “If people stayed in Tikrit, it does not mean they were with Daesh.”
“The vision here changed too, already during the occupation,” Raoof said of people’s expectations and later view of ISIS.
Some in Tikrit—Saddam’s hometown—had expected ISIS to bring back the old regime, and were disappointed to discover that they were only offered an Islamic Caliphate.
Many left and some stayed because they were too poor, or unwilling to leave their properties behind.
“If anyone was with Daesh, we cannot allow them to study here,” Waad Raoof stresses. “But we know we have nobody who worked with them.”
Though brief was the ISIS occupation, the era has left a legacy of unease and distrust between those who fled and those who stayed. Raoof wants his university to play a role in keeping a peaceful co-existence.
“We have an active program stimulating dialogue against the extremist Islam, and we ask the students to live together, to be the new generation,” he said. “Now many people understand what has happened when Daesh came.”
For UNDP, the success of restarting Tikrit is a model to repeat in other cities liberated from ISIS. The policy is to combine bringing back public services with re-opening universities, hospitals, and job opportunities to make families return.
“My advice is, to other cities after Daesh: when services are back, some people come back. Once you offer work, also in rebuilding, that will attract many people, and so will the reopening of universities in for instance Ramadi and Mosul,” Raoof suggested.
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