60 Of Iraqi Historical Records Gone

60% of Iraqi Historical Records Gone

Valentinas Mite of Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty tells us more about the destruction of a substantial portion of Iraq’s archives.

Saad Iskandar, Director of the Iraqi Archives, is quoted as saying, ‘ “We lost about 60 percent of our state records and documents — they were either burned or damaged by water. [The lost documents belonged] to all the ministries, all departments of the state from the late 19th century up to Saddam’s period. As concerns books, I think we lost some 25 percent of them, mostly rare books, the most valuable books.” ‘