Tonight, I had an amazing oppurtunity to attend a lecture by Dr. Saad Sakander of the Iraq Library and Archive. He hosted a diary about his experiences for BBC. He is the director of Iraq's National Library and Archive. He holds a Ph.D. in World History. He discussed the many challenges him and his staff are faced with in rebuilding the Iraqi archives. In Iraqi, they cannot separate politics and culture. As archives document both, Hussein wanted any evidence left by past regimes destroyed and old ways of lives forgotten. He wanted to show that his way was the "correct" way and that no good life existed outside of Iraq. Because of Hussein's efforts, the Iraqis veiwed the National Library as a place of oppression due to this censorship. Dr. Eskander has worked hard to shed this perception. He wants it to be viewed as a place of learning and education.
After the U.S. invasion, many records and artifacts were looted. The archives was left in shambles. Their biggest problem is retrieving all the former regime's, aka Saddam Hussein, records. After the invasion, Iraqis, political parties, Americans and neighboring countries looted them. Many Iraqis took them because they wanted to know what happened to their missing relatives and friends. Political parties took them so they could blackmail others into doing their bidding and the Americans took them to try and justify their invasion by finding a link between Hussein and terrorism.
Why does the archives want the records back? That is a very important question that has such a simple answer. You see, part of an archives' purpose is to hold people or institutions, i.e. the government accountable for their actions. How do we do this? We document them by collecting and preserving their records. This is why their is so much uproar over missing President's papers or emails. The U.S. has laws in place that place these records in the custody of the National Archives and we can thank Richard Nixon's 17 minutes of missing tape for these laws, but we need to document their actions so we can hold them accountable for their choices. It is to protect the public. Dr. Eskander wants these records back because they document the brutality of dictatorships and of the former regime. They show what they did was wrong and that is should never be repeated. They can never forget, but it will allow them to move forward as they transition into a democracy. They need these documents to show hold the former regime accountable for all their brutality.
Other things I learned was that corruption still runs rampant in Iraq. Old ways will not die, especially in education. It was funny to learn that the old regime feared photocopiers. The archives now has computers and is building a digital library. The staff has gone to Turkey and Italy for training. Dr. Eskander fears for the safety of his staff though. They are bussed to work. After the invasion, they had no power and very damaged records. They worked wearing gloves and masks and no money. However, Dr. Eskander has worked with the prime minister to get funding and to get him to pass laws that make it illegal for anyone outside of the archives to hold the former regime's records.
Dr. Eskander is doing amazing things at the Iraq archives. He wants it to be a place of learning, a place of hope and a place where people feel free to express themselves. He is revamping the archives for the better and allowing Iraqis to see their entire history and documenting their transition from a dictatorship to a democracy. This is why I am studying to be an archivist. I get to play a part in documenting history. In opening up the past to others.
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