IRAQ: Director of National Library fears further destruction after recent security force occupation

Surviving looting and burning after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, the National Library and Archives in Baghdad again comes under attack. Four years after being burned and looted, Iraq's National Library and Archive has come under armed attack again, this time by armed Iraqi security forces who stormed the building a few days ago, according to the library's director. Saad Eskander, who has run the library since 2003, said a group of armed Iraqi soldiers rushed into the archive at gunpoint, smashing windows and doors and threatening staff and library guards. "On Wednesday morning, August the 8th, a contingent of the Iraqi army arrived at the library and tried to storm it by force, but the guards of the library asked them for official papers authorizing them to enter the facility. Regrettably, the Iraqi army force did not show official papers authorizing them to enter the facility; however, they entered the building by force and occupied it until half past eight in the evening," said Eskander, an ethnic Kurd born in Baghdad. Eskander explained further that the troops held their positions in the building for two whole days and left late on Thursday, August 9. He now fears the archive will be targeted by extremists who routinely attack Iraqi forces here. He said that the Iraqi National Guard Commander justified his forces entry and continued presence on the premises as being due to orders from superiors, as well as American forces. Eskander reported the commander saying they were "wanting to protect Shi'ite visitors of the holy shrines of al-Kadhimiyah". This week's developments add to the plethora of violence and hardship the library and its 400 plus multi-faith staff continue to endure since helping to rebuild the destroyed facility. Almost all of the contents of Iraq's national library and archives are reported to have been destroyed by fire after the war in April, 2003, causing the loss of priceless records of the country's history. The library, in central Baghdad, housed several rare volumes, including entire royal court records and files from the period when Iraq was part of the Ottoman Empire. "Following the fall of the former regime, the building was extensively burned and looted . As a result of the sabotage acts we had lost about 60 per cent of the archives of the Iraqi state, that is 60 per cent of the memory of modern Iraq. We also lost about 25 per cent of the library contents. Most of the missing books are very rare ones," Eskander said. Located across from the Ministry of Defense, the Iraqi National Library and Archive held about 12 million documents before the 2003 American-led invasion. It also houses rare books and manuscripts. The building is thought to hold the largest collection of Arabic newspapers in the world. According to Eskander, some 300 rare books out of 3,000 lost were restored to the library, whereas a large number of valuable and rare documents are still missing. "Actually, despite our endeavours and painstaking efforts we were able to restore around 300 rare and valuable books to the facility. As for other rare publications, we were not able to restore them because they have been smuggled out of Iraq and because of lack of cooperation between authorities of these countries with us, the Iraqi government. As for documents, they are very rare and sensitive documents, which can not be replaced and regrettably we do not have the financial, technical and intelligence facilities to restore them," Eskander said. According to Eskander the looters stole hundreds of rare, centuries-old Islamic documents and texts, including a 16th century treatise by the Islamic philosopher and physician Ibn Sina, while military and national security records were torched. The facility was restored and maintained with the help of a number of foreign countries. Its newly-furnished departments are equipped by advanced devices to restore and maintain documents, manuscripts and files in addition to hundreds of computers and microfilm equipment. "The Document Maintenance and Restoration Laboratory was opened by the end of 2006. One of its main task is to restore life to documents damaged as a result of the destruction, especially of cultural institutions caused by the recent war on Iraq," said Mazen Ibrahim Ismail, the head of the Laboratory.

ITN Source | August 14, 2007

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