Fulbright scholarships for Iraqis to resume
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States Tuesday said it would resume giving Fulbright scholarships for Iraqis to study in the United States for the first time in more than a decade, with the first students arriving as early as January.
Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage said the first of 20 students expected to come to the United States over the next year would be selected in December and would take courses in "priority" areas from law to public health.
"In a 5,000-year history of intellectual distinction, it is only the last generation of Iraqis who were denied the freedom to learn," he said, adding Iraqis studied in a "politicized and dangerous environment" under former leader Saddam Hussein.
"I can assure that the demand is there after 20 years of forced isolation," he added at a State Department ceremony to announce the program's resumption. "The people of Iraq are hungry to re-engage with the international community."
Thomas Farrell, an official in the State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, told reporters Iraqi students last studied in the United States under the Fulbright program during the 1986-1988 period. He said the program had been suspended because of the Iran-Iraq war.
Farrell said the first 20 Iraqis, all of them graduate students, are expected to have been selected by June. Iraqi officials are most interested in scholarships to study the sciences and technology, as well as public administration, education and law to help rebuild the country, he said.
The United States hoped that by May or June it would be able to provide short-term Fulbright grants to U.S. scholars and professionals to visit Iraq, Farrell added.
The program, named for former Sen. J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, was established in 1946 and provides grants to graduate students, scholars, professionals, teachers and administrators from the United States to study abroad and for foreigners to study in the United States. About 4,500 new grants are awarded each year.
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