BAGHDAD, 27 August 2003 — Iraqi school exams begin on Sept. 1, and Iraqi parents are in a state of high agitation. But it is not the grades their children achieve they are worried about as much as the very safety of their loved ones in the face of a wave of kidnappings and demands for ransom.

Abu Tarik is worried for his 16-year-old son. Like many Iraqi parents, he believes the spectacular abductions of schoolchildren and demands for money from their parents could begin again after the holidays. The US civil administration and the interim governing council in Baghdad face a decisive test of their authority.

Before the holiday began children from all levels of society fell victim to kidnapping. “It didn’t matter whether they were small or big, rich or poor,” Umm Sara says.

The ransom demands in the part of Baghdad where this mother of two daughters lives ranged from 2,000 to 100,000 dollars. She now works only half days, as she takes her children to school, waits there to watch over them and brings them home again.

Her neighbour, a medical doctor, has packed up and left for Syria, unable to put up with the deteriorating security situation and the fears for his children’s safety. The parents affected by this type of crime cannot expect to rely on the police to protect their children. Only 8,000 Iraqi officers are on duty on the streets of the capital to police its approximately five million inhabitants. They are completely overwhelmed by the criminality that has erupted on a scale unheard of in the days of Saddam Hussein, when his spies and police kept order using totalitarian methods.

Iraqi parents are meanwhile waiting to see whether a newly formed police special commission against kidnapping will have any effect in reducing the wave of abductions. Concern over the safety of the children and the arrangements needed to decide who will take them to school, watch over them while they are there and then bring them home again are casting a long shadow over the efforts of the occupying forces to ensure an orderly start to the new school year.

This is a project central to aims of the United States. According to the UN children’s organization Unicef, seven of 10 schools in Iraq were in need of renovation before Saddam’s regime was toppled. Military action and the subsequent looting have since taken their toll. According to the head of the US civil administration, Paul Bremer, more than 1,000 primary schools were to have been renovated by the time the school years begin on Sept. 23.

In addition, five million new schoolbooks — printed outside the country to the irritation of the interim government — were to have been handed out. The old textbooks were shredded following Saddam’s fall, with teachers instructing their pupils to rip out all pictures, slogans and commands from the former head of state.

Eulogies to the former dictators and his Baath Party went the same way. Some subjects that were compulsory, such as national culture, simply do not exist any more.

By contrast with the way police and army personnel were dealt with following Saddam’s fall, the US administration has kept most of the teachers in the education system, even though they were all Baath members. “All teachers had to be in the party, even though some were against Saddam, despite their Baath membership,” Abu Tarik says. Only those who were clearly enthusiastic members have been rejected. But the old practice of baksheesh carries on, despite the dramatic changes in Iraq — to the dismay of the parents. “Those who do not pay up or give presents end up paying for expensive private lessons during the holidays to get their children through their exams,” Abu Tarik says. Those parents owning a motor garage or a tire service are particularly favored by the teachers, he says.