Diary by Saad Eskander, Director of the National Archives and Library in Iraq

international | anti-war / imperialism | other press Wednesday April 18, 2007 10:30 by pat c

The diary entries below give just a taste of the trials and tribulations endurded on a daily basis by the staff of the National Archives and Library in Iraq. In March 2007 2 members of staff were kidnapped, 1 had a son killed, 2 had relatives kidnapped, 2 received death threats and 4 were forced to leave their homes.

Full diaries at the link.

Diary by Saad Eskander, Director of the National Archives and Library in Iraq, Saad Eskander, Director of the National Archives and Library, has generously agreed to share an account of his day-to-day life in Iraq.

Wednesday, April 4
The traffic was heavy. It took us some time to arrive to the INLA. The security situation was good, although US helicopter were sporadically flying low above the INLA's building

I sent the letter to Minister in which I asked him to raise the issue of those Iraqi documents and records, which the Coalition Forces sized during the 2003 War. The Minister's secretary rang me asking for more information and the level of cooperation. I told him that the Librarary & Archive signed an important cooperation protocol with the Library of Congress, which hopefully would be followed by a bilateral agreement.

Saturday, 7 April
At 12.20, I entered the local internet café to read my e-mail. Ten minutes later, two successive explosions shook the internet café. Everybody went outside to see what happened. I learnt that two bombs exploded in our area, killing and injuring some innocent shoppers. My wife rang me. She was worried about me.

Sunday, 8 April
I picked up the internet technician at 7.40 on my way to my office. She started to work as soon as she arrived to the INLA. At the end she could was not able to fix the problem, without the help of the technicians of the local telephone office of Bab al-Mudham, who were all absent! They refused to go to work in protest against the death threat they receive daily. She promised to return with one of her fellow technicians before the end of the week.