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French Librarian Excluded from UNESCO Mission to IraqA librarian from the French national library was excluded from a UNESCO team that visited Baghdad in mid-May to assess the extent of damage to cultural institutions. Jean-Marie Arnoult, inspector-general of libraries at the Bibliothèque National in Paris and the sole librarian member of the team, was denied a visa because France had opposed the war in Iraq, according to a May 27 Inter Press Service report.Ross Shimmon, secretary general of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, condemned the decision by the United States occupation authorities and called on the international library community to expose “this scandalous state of affairs.” The move was also criticized by the British Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals and by American Library Association President Mitch Freedman, who has urged ALA Council to consider an appropriate resolution at the Association’s forthcoming Annual Conference in Toronto. Despite the lack of a librarian on its team, the UNESCO team issued a preliminary evaluation May 23 of the cultural losses in Baghdad. Contradicting an earlier report that some of the contents of the National Library of Iraq were salvaged, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Culture Mounir Bouchenaki said the losses were “a major cultural disaster. The library is gone.” However, because of unexploded ordnance and structural damage to the building, the international team was only able to drive past the devastation, according to a May news item in Art Newspaper online. The mission was also prevented from visiting sites outside Baghdad, particularly the Mosul Museum and Basra University where there have been reports of widespread looting. Posted June 2, 2003. |
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