Bagdad: Nationalbibliothek und Nationalarchiv vernichtet

["Klaus Graf" <klaus.graf _at__ geschichte.uni-freiburg.de>]

http://www.arabnews.com/Article.asp?ID=25219

Islamic Library Burned to the Ground
                        Robert Fisk, The Independent

BAGHDAD, 15 April 2003 ? So yesterday was the burning of
                        books. First came the looters, then
came the arsonists. It was the
                        final chapter in the sack of
Baghdad. The National Library and
                        Archives ? a priceless treasure of
Ottoman historical documents
                        including the old royal archives of
Iraq ? were turned to ashes in
                        3,000 degrees of heat. Then the
Islamic Library of Qur?ans at the
                        Ministry of Religious Endowment was
set ablaze. I saw the looters.

                        One of them cursed me when I tried
to reclaim a book of Islamic law
                        from a boy who could have been no
more than 10 years old. Amid
                        the ashes of hundreds of years of
Iraqi history, I found just one file
                        blowing in the wind outside: Pages
and pages of handwritten letters
                        between the court of Sherif Hussein
of Makkah ? who started the
                        Arab revolt against the Turks for
Lawrence of Arabia ? and the
                        Ottoman rulers of Baghdad.

                        And the Americans did nothing. All
over the filthy yard they blew,
                        letters of recommendation to the
courts of Arabia, demands for
                        ammunition for Ottoman troops,
reports on the theft of camels and
                        attacks on pilgrims, all of them in
delicate hand-written Arabic script.
                        I was holding in my hands the last
Baghdad vestiges of Iraq?s written
                        history. But for Iraq, this is Year
Zero; with the destruction of the
                        antiquities in the Museum of
Archaeology on Saturday and the
                        burning of the National Archives
and then the Qur?anic library of the
                        ministry, the cultural identity of
Iraq is being erased.

                        Why? Who set these fires? For what
insane purpose is this heritage
                        being destroyed? When I caught
sight of the Qur?anic library burning
                        ? there were flames 100 feet high
bursting from the windows ? I
                        raced to the offices of the
occupying power, the US Marines? civil
                        affairs bureau, to report what I
had seen. An officer shouted to a
                        colleague that ?this guy says some
Biblical (sic) library is on fire.? I
                        gave the map location, the precise
name ? in Arabic and English ?
                        of the fire, I said that the smoke
could be seen from three miles away
                        and it would take only five minutes
to drive there. Half an hour later,
                        there wasn?t an American at the
scene ? and the flames were now
                        shooting 200 feet into the air.

                        There was a time when the Arabs
said that their books were written
                        in Cairo, printed in Beirut and
read in Baghdad. Now they burn
                        libraries in Baghdad. In the
National Archives were not just the
                        Ottoman records of the caliphate,
but even the dark years of the
                        country?s modern history,
hand-written accounts of the 1980-88
                        Iran-Iraq war, an entire library of
Western newspapers ? bound
                        volumes of the Financial Times were
lying on the pavement ? and
                        microfiche copies of Arabic
newspapers going back to the early
                        1900s. 


***

Ich kann solche Zeilen nicht ohne unbaendige Wut auf
diejenigen US- und UK-Verantwortlichen, die so etwas
zuliessen, lesen. Wer das kulturelle Erbe eines Volkes
ausloescht oder dies zulaesst (Oelfoerderanlagen konnte man
ohne weiteres sichern ...), gehoert nach meinem
unmassgeblichen Dafuerhalten als Verbrecher auf die
Anklagebank eines internationalen Tribunals. Wir erinnern
uns an die ohnmaechtige Erbitterung, als die Taliban ein
paar alte Statuen sprengten und niemand ihnen Einhalt
gebieten konnte - was nun geschehen ist, ist tausendmal
schlimmer: es ist eine Brandfackel, die in den Herzen der
arabischen Intellektuellen als Mythos weiterlodern wird. So
zuechtet man Terroristen!

Klaus Graf