The following is a joint statement from Zainab Bahrani and Saad Eskander:
In response to a number of questions that have arisen regarding the
status of the national Library building in Baghdad, and some erroneous
press reports, Zainab Bahrani (Senior Cosultant, Iraq Ministry of
Culture) and Saad Eskander (Director of The National Library) would like
to clarify a few points: The Coalition Provisional Authority's office of
Property handed down a decision in May 2004 to transfer the ownership of
the Officer's Club, that had been chosen as the new Library building, to
the Ministry of Justice. The Ministry of Justice had identified the
building as a good location to use for a new law court. The Officer's
Club building is in the Adhamiya district of Baghdad. The Ministry of
Justice was not going to use it as a ministry building, as some people
have thought, but as a court house. The archive of Ottoman documents
that had been frozen in order to stop the mold and now await
conservation work, are still in the freezers of that abandoned Officer's
Club building.
The Ottoman Qishla building is not assigned as a new library, as current
rumor has it. This rumor is most likely based on the situation at the
Old Ottoman Complex in the Bab al Muadham area. There is an old Ministry
of Defense Complex right across the street from the old Library there,
that we had thought would be an excellent place for a library, as well
as a general cultural center. It is a large complex with many buildings.
An NGO from the USA had been given a part of the site by the CPA to
demolish and to build up as housing for squatters. The Ministry of
Culture had made an official request to the CPA for this work to be
stopped. According to Iraq's Antiquities and Heritage Laws, no
construction work may take place in a historical or archaeological site
without the authorization of the State Board of Antiquities and the
Ministry of Culture. The fate of the complex remains unsettled. It is
now officially owned by the Iraqi Ministry of Defense and the Ministry
of Finance. However, all parties are obliged to follow the Antiquities
and Heritage law should they wish to do any reconstruction on the site.
In sum, the library has no building at this point other than the old
shell of a burnt building that is left from the plunder of April 2003.
This building is in a terrible state, and looks on the verge of
collapse. All the same, a great deal of work and effort by the staff has
gone into the cleaning and reorganization of this institution, and
despite the destruction and looting of a large part of the library and
almost no reconstruction budget to speak of, the collections are already
accessible to readers.
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