LETTER: Foreign students should get counseling during Iraq war

Editor,

I beg every reader to take a minute and imagine how the violence and hostilities in Iraq might feel in the heart of an international student at UNM. Contrary to accepted prejudice, not all of them are terrorists. Indeed, what I have witnessed from them during 25 years is fascination and relief at finally living in such a free society.

Unfortunately, what many of them face once again through this war is possible hate mail, especially e-mail; harassment by the locals, especially mistaken-ethnicity situations; and even violence.

Therefore, we owe them every opportunity to get special and free counseling, where they can safely express their feelings about the war and terrorism to an internationally minded listener. This needs to be in the strictest confidence, with advance proof that these sessions are not yet another way the government is checking them out.

It would be reassuring to them in such sessions to be given a list of their legal rights. Thus, how many of them know that being spat in the face is against the law? Or even a verbally delivered threat of bodily harm? When I was a foreign student, I didn't know this.

Paring students with immigrant counselors from their own country would work best. Believe you me, quite a few licensed psychotherapists and psychiatrists in the United States are immigrants themselves. At a national level, then, it would behoove them to tour the nation's campuses at this time of crises, offering service to international students. It is only by the early dissipation of feelings in therapeutic settings, however informal, that peace can prevail.

Arun Ahuja

UNM student