Iraq appeals to exiled professionals to come home

By Aseel Kami

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq has appealed to exiled doctors, university professors, scientists and other qualified Iraqis to come back now that security has improved, but few exiles said on Tuesday they were ready to return.

At a two-day conference aimed at luring back tens of thousands of skilled Iraqi professionals after years of war, sanctions and sectarian violence drove them away, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki asked the elite diaspora to help rebuild Iraq.

"We say frankly the country cannot be built without you," he said in a speech to open the forum on Monday.

"We cannot fully assume responsibility in your absence and the absence of the capabilities and qualifications you have."

Doctors, engineers, lawyers and lecturers fled Iraq in their droves after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to oust Saddam Hussein unleashed a wave of bloodshed and chaos. Others had already left during the hard years of U.N. economic sanctions preceding it.

Although violence has fallen sharply in Iraq this year, many of the 200 professionals attending the conference on Tuesday had reservations about returning to a country where civilians still die at the hands of gunmen and bombers every day.

"I'd take it slow and think 100 times before coming back," said Ahmed Mousa, a development studies professor now living in Norway.

Others complained about the lack of water and electricity.