Thursday, October 11, 2001

Most American Scholars Abroad Are Staying Put, While Those in Some Nations Must Leave By BURTON BOLLAG Some American scholars and students in or planning to go to Pakistan, Indonesia, Tajikistan, and Yemen are being forced to change their plans, in the wake of the start of U.S. military actions in Afghanistan. But most American scholars and students abroad appear to be staying where they are -- while paying more attention to security. The Fulbright exchange program, which sends approximately 800 American scholars and 900 American students to more than 100 countries around the world, has had to take special measures in nations where the State Department has determined there is a heightened danger to Americans. The program has been completely suspended in Pakistan. The Fulbright Commission director and the two American scholars who were already there have left -- one transferring to Nepal. A third scholar who was scheduled to go there is trying to postpone her stay abroad until next year. Two American students already in Pakistan on Fulbright scholarships have left, one to neighboring India, and six other students have been forced to cancel plans to go there. After the start of the U.S.-led airstrikes in Afghanistan, the State Department advised Americans to consider leaving Indonesia, and no new Fulbright participants are being allowed to go there. According to the U.S. Embassy in Indonesia, one Fulbright scholar has left the country out of concerns for his security. About 12 Fulbrighters have decided to stay -- nine scholars and three students -- and are said to be fine. One scholar, at the advice of the embassy, returned to the capital, Jakarta, from the city of Solo, in central Java. Mobs there, as elsewhere in the country, have reportedly carried out "sweeps" of hotels and other places, trying to find Americans to expel them from the country. No Americans are known to have been directly harassed in these actions. In all, 22 American students with Fulbright grants to study in Pakistan, Indonesia, Tajikistan, and Yemen have been told they must postpone travel plans to those countries, according to Tom Farrell of the Institute of International Education, which manages the program for students. American Fulbright scholars with grants to go to Kyrgyzstan and Yemen have also been told to postpone their trips. Those already in the countries have been given the choice to leave if they wish. The four Fulbrighters in Kyrgyzstan have opted to stay. In other countries of the Middle East and elsewhere, Fulbright offices are paying close attention to the State Department advisory, which is basically for Americans to be vigilant. "Nobody's hyperventilating over here -- not yet anyway," said Ann Bos Radwan, the executive director of the Fulbright program's Egyptian office, in Cairo. The program canceled one major public event this week, but some 20 American grantees, most of them students, are continuing their normal routines. Mary M. Dwyer, president of the Chicago-based Institute for the International Education of Students, said only 9 out of 976 students planning to study abroad under the institute's auspices had canceled their plans -- all in the week following the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. The Association of American College and University Programs in Italy, based in Rome, said only 6 out of 10,500 American students enrolled in study there this fall had pulled out. The association's director, Portia Prebys, said it appeared that all six had lost loved ones in the terrorist attacks. Meanwhile, events have caused some disruption to local higher education in countries where students and others have protested their governments' support of the American military campaign. On Tuesday, the Palestinian Authority closed universities and schools in the Gaza Strip after two Palestinians were killed and more than 210 hurt in the deadliest inter-Palestinian clashes in years. Monday's clashes, in which Palestinian security forces opened fire on a crowd of more than 1,000 demonstrators, were sparked by protests against the U.S. attacks in Afghanistan. Gaza City's two universities, the Islamic University and Al-Azhar University, were closed until the end of the week. Al-Jazeera satellite TV, a leading independent Arabic service based in Qatar, reported that Jordanian authorities had arrested 10 university students Sunday as part of security measures aimed at preventing demonstrations in protest against the military action in Afghanistan. In Pakistan, Maulana Sami al-Haq, chancellor of Jamia Dar al-Ulum Haqqania -- the University of Religious Sciences -- is one of several pro-Taliban clerics who have been placed under house arrest for calling on Muslims in Pakistan and elsewhere to rise in jihad, or holy war, against the U.S.-led attacks. The university, located near the border with Afghanistan an hour out of Peshawar, counts many of the Taliban's senior officials among its alumni. (See an article from The Chronicle, September 28.) David Cohen and Daniel del Castillo contributed to this report. Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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