After being barred for more than a decade, Iraqi scientists can now visit ICTP. Matti Nasir Abdul R. Makadsi, who visited Trieste late last year, was the first to arrive.

Notes from Iraq

When Matti Nasir Abdul R. Makadsi, a 69-year-old professor of physics at Baghdad University, arrived at ICTP in November, he became the first Iraqi scientist to visit the Centre since the United Nations lifted sanctions against his home country in June 2004. The sanctions had been put in place more than a decade earlier following the first Gulf War in 1991.
By coincidence, he was also the last Iraqi to visit the Centre.
In fact, Makadsi's most recent trip to ICTP had been delayed for more than decade. "I visited the Centre on three different occasions in the late 1980s and early 1990s," he explains, "both as an ICTP Associate and to attend the Centre's colleges on semiconductors and superconductivity. The last trip, planned for 1992, was cancelled when the UN first imposed sanctions on Iraq that prohibited Iraqi scientists and scholars from participating in UN activities. I still have the invitation letter that Luciano Bertocchi, who was ICTP's deputy director at the time, sent to me. No one---least of all me---anticipated then that the restrictions would last so long."
Makadsi's latest journey to Trieste, which was spurred by an invitation from ICTP director K.R. Sreenivasan and which began in late November, was both trying and treacherous. To begin his journey, he hired a van driver to take him from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan. The 16-hour trip across the desert terrain began along stretches of highway in Iraq's battle-torn Baghdad and Al-Anbar provinces that have become infamous for insurgent car bombings and kidnappings.
After safely arriving in Amman, Makadsi remained at a hotel for eight days, the time that it took to finalise his travel arrangements to Italy. A four-hour airplane ride from Amman to Rome, followed by a seven-hour train trip from Rome to Trieste, brought him to the doorstep of the Centre. Makadsi's journey concluded with a 15-minute taxi ride from Trieste's main train station to ICTP's Adriatico Guesthouse.
"My journey took 10 days in all," Makadsi notes. His stay at ICTP lasted just 25 days.
"Iraqi science," Makadsi acknowledges, "has suffered terribly under the restrictions imposed by the sanctions. The two greatest handicaps," he says, "were the inability to learn first-hand about advances in research in other parts of the world and the fact that we were unable either to purchase replacement parts for our laboratory equipment as it wore out or to buy new laboratory equipment as advances were made in technology."
Despite the difficulties faced by Iraq's scientific community, Makadsi asserts that "scientific research and teaching continued to take place through the 1990s and the early years of this decade." He cites his capacity to publish articles in his field of condensed matter physics on subjects such as phase transitions in superconducting compounds and the electrical and optical properties of thin films. He also cites his ability to create and sustain a laboratory at the University of Baghdad devoted to the study of superconductivity, which during the 1990s served as a training ground for seven Ph.D. students. An additional seven doctoral and two master-degree candidates are currently conducting experimental research as part of their training. The creation of the laboratory was sparked by his experience at ICTP.
While international sanctions virtually froze Iraqi science in place throughout the 1990s, Iraqi researchers used their ingenuity both to maintain their equipment and to conduct the most innovative experiments that they could under trying circumstances.
"We worked doubly hard using our imagination and determination to compensate in part for our inadequate equipment and limited contacts," Makadsi notes.
He proudly points to his own experience to confirm his claim. In the 1990s, scientists in both the United States and Europe turned to state-of-the-art 'discharge sputtering' laboratories to conduct research on solar cells, while scientists in Iraq continued to rely on 'thermal evaporation hydrogenated' facilities to pursue similar research. "Although we were somewhat handicapped," he maintains that "the outdated equipment did not prevent us from pursuing productive research that has contributed to the overall understanding of this promising technology."
While Makadsi welcomes Iraq's new-found access to information and increased mobility, he notes that the chaos and violence that followed the fall of Saddam Hussein has made both life and work more difficult and dangerous than during the years of Saddam's oppressive rule. Last year, Makadsi had his car stolen at gunpoint while entering his garage and, although average citizens are rarely a direct target, innocent people sometimes find themselves in the crossfire between the insurgents and US-led forces or collateral victims of the car bombings directed against Iraqi public officials or police. The British medical journal, The Lancet, in October 2004, conservatively estimated that more than 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives since the US launched their first attacks in March 2003---a figure that has been rising ever since.
Makadsi accepts the situation for what it is and remains neither pessimistic nor optimistic. "In the 1950s," he recalls, "as a student at the University of Baghdad I was suspended from school (and even jailed for brief period) for protesting the regime of King Faisal II, the British-backed ruler of Iraq and, as a result, I had to suspend my studies for four years. In the 1980s, under the regime of Saddam Hussein, virtually all capital funding for university facilities came to a halt and professors' salaries were cut sharply. In the 1990s, Iraqi scientists suffered through years of debilitating isolation created by the sanctions."
While he expresses disappointment with the failure of US-led forces to secure peace ("protection was given only to our oil industry; even the offices and laboratories of the Atomic Energy Commission were left unguarded," he laments), Makadsi is eager to pursue the full range of opportunities beyond Iraq's borders that are now available to scientists in his country. He is particularly thankful for his ability to resume his ties with ICTP after such an extended absence and he hopes that his colleagues---particularly his younger colleagues---will also be able to take advantage of the Centre's research and training activities now that the sanctions have been lifted.
After visiting his sons in Stockholm and London, Makadsi recently returned home---via the same long and arduous route that brought him to Trieste. He is now more determined than ever to embrace the everyday routines of life and work that most of us take for granted.
"The Iraqi people," explains, "are no different than other people: the 'silent community' represents the vast majority of the population. Despite the escalating violence, we remain hopeful---perhaps wishful is a more accurate term-that peaceful solutions to the nation's myriad problems can be found. That would allow us to focus on what we all hold dear: family, friends, spiritual fulfilment and rewarding work."

ICTP and Iraqi Science

Between 1970 and 1989, more than 200 Iraqi scientists visited ICTP, making Iraq's scientific community among the most active participants in ICTP research and training activities in the Arab world. The number of Iraqi visitors peaked in 1989 when 43 scientists came to Trieste. That number declined to 24 in 1990 as international tensions mounted. It then dropped to zero in 1991, the first year that UN sanctions were imposed. Between 1991 and 2004, not a single Iraqi scientist was able to come to the Centre. Now that the sanctions have been lifted, both ICTP and the Iraqi scientific community hope to re-establish their once-strong ties.

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