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Baghdad Library In Flames, Oil Stations ‘Safe’
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The
torched library is home to Iraq's national archives and a myriad
of rare books
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BAGHDAD,
April 14 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – As free-for-all
looting and sabotage swept many Iraqi cities over the past days,
Iraq's National Library was in flames late Sunday, April 13, after
being ransacked by looters under the watchful eye of U.S. Marines, who
were heavily guarding Kirkuk's oil and gas facilities, as the area
contains about a third of Iraq's oil.
The
library, built in 1961, is home to Iraq's national archives and houses
some of the world’s rare books and volumes, Agence France-Presse
(AFP) reported.
A
Baghdad mob looted Iraq's largest archaeological museum, which housed
a major collection of antiquities from the cradle of civilizations,
Friday, April 11, amid a breakdown in civil authority following the
collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Jordan's
Education Minister Khaled Tuqan on Saturday, April 12, called on
UNESCO and the U.S.-British forces to intervene immediately to protect
Iraq's cultural heritage from looters.
The
U.N. agency and U.S.-led forces "who control Iraqi cities must
intervene to protect Iraqi antiquities from destruction in line with
international convention," Tuqan said.
At
a meeting with Ndeye Fall, UNESCO's representative in Amman, Tuqan
voiced Jordan's "deep concern over the looting that has also
targeted (Iraqi) antiquities".
Meanwhile,
Jordan's ambassador to France, Dina Kawar, sent an official letter to
UNESCO chief Koichiro Matsuura's calling for the "need to take
all the necessary measures to protect Iraqi antiquities".
Earlier
Saturday, the director general of the UN Educational, Scientific and
Cultural organisation called on U.S. and British authorities to
immediately protect Iraq's cultural heritage amid lawlessness and
widespread looting in Iraqi cities.
Iraq,
among the earliest cradles of civilisation and home to the remains of
such ancient Mesopotamian cities as Babylon, Ur and Nineveh, has one
of the richest archaeological heritages in the world.
‘Freedom
Of Thieves’
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Marines
heavily guard Iraq's vital oil facilities
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Meanwhile,
Iraqi academics mourned Sunday the looting and burning of Basra
University.
The
dean of the university, Abdul Jabar al-Khalifa, surveyed the charred
wreckage of his offices Sunday in Basra University and then explodes:
"Tell me, is this the freedom of Iraq or the freedom of
thieves?"
In
the widespread orgy of violence which accompanied the taking of Basra
by British troops on Tuesday, April 8, the city's university was soon
overrun.
Computers,
air conditioning units and furniture were all carted off before mobs
set fire to large parts of the campus.
"The
British are to blame. They allowed the people to come in and did not
stop them," said the dean.
"They
stole everything and then they poured petrol and set it alight."
The
university has been closed since the
start of the U.S.-led campaign on Iraq and is now unlikely to open
again this academic year.
The
looting was a sour reminder of the events of 12 years ago when
civilians in Basra rose up against Saddam at the end of the last Gulf
War before their revolt was brutally crushed.
"We
had something like this in the 90s but this time it's like a
typhoon," said Mahmud al-Habib, an 81-year-old economics
professor, who has taught at the university since it opened in 1964.
"It's
a disaster. I have seen the university born, so for me it's the end of
the world. Heartbreaking."
Al-Habib,
who previously taught in Texas, also castigated the British for
standing idle.
"They
did not make any effort for the first few days. They did not move
until too late," he said.
Barak
Jawad, a lecturer in common law, said the mob who had targeted the
university should be regarded as common criminals rather than forgiven
as opponents of Saddam who were venting pent-up anger.
"Look,
here is still a picture of Saddam," he said, pointing to a large
poster of the dictator attached to a lamppost on the campus.
"The
statue of Saddam outside is still there, no one has touched it. Bush
said the actions of the Iraqi people are normal after years of severe
barbarism but it's not normal.
"This
is nothing to do with politics, these are just thieves," said
Jawad.
Habib
said that the damage would not deter the academics from returning to
their jobs even if they were not paid for many months.
"I'm
a soldier, not of the gun but with the pen," he said.
Little
of the university appeared to have escaped the attentions of the mob.
A lecture theatre which once held around 200 students had seen most of
its seats ripped out as well as all the light fittings and air
conditioning system.
Slides
and film reel could be seen scattered among the broken glass on the
floor.
The
U.S. and UK forces came under diatribe for encouraging
the chaotic scenes to justify sending additional troops and appear
with its agents as the sole solution in the eyes of the Iraqi people.
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