Juan Cole this morning links to a very upsetting document he found at the British Library. It is the diary of Saad Eskander, director of the Iraq National Library and Archive.
An entry:
It is another bad week for the NLA.
On Sunday, I learnt that Ahmed Salih, who was on leave, was murdered by a Death Squad in his own house. Ahmed came from a poor family. After his father’s death, he raised his younger brothers and sisters. He worked very hard to educate them. I also learnt that Ahmed was engaged to a girl two weeks before his death.
On Monday, I received more bad news. The older brother of Maiadah, who works in the Periodical Department, was murdered by a group of terrorists.
I learnt that some sniper fired at a car in the Republican Street, killing the driver and all the passengers.
It was a Christmas period and the security situation was as bad as ever. We have four Christians in our institution. The first two, ‘A’ and ‘B’, work in the Archive, the third, ‘C’, in the Library, and the fourth, ‘D’, in my office. I gave them 5 day-break to celebrate Christmas. ‘D’ took just one day off. She continued to show up, even when the main roads were blocked. I advised her to cover her hair, when passing through dangerous areas (i.e. under the control of the militias and armed gangs). She said that she was wearing Hijab for some time to hide her identity (i.e. being Christian).
