LONDON: A group of academics from British and US universities have called for the setting up of an all-Iraqi historical commission to reconstitute the historical archives of Iraq.

In a letter to the Guardian, London, the academics regretted the looting and burning of Iraq’s national archives and the negligence of the US forces in failing to protect them. The academics include Professor Colin Bundy (Director and Principal, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), Professor Kamal Abu Deeb (School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London), Dr Toby Dodge (University of Warwick), Professor Roger Owen (Harvard University) and Professor Peter Sluglett (All Souls College, Oxford University).

They said the archives contained the documentary record of Iraq’s modern history and were integral to Iraq’s sense of identity and authority and its reconstitution in post-Saddam and post-occupation times.

To prevent further damage to Iraq’s historical legacy, the academics called upon the US and UK forces not to remove any information from the country, no matter how useful to allied agencies, such as the files of the Ministry of Interior. Instead they should be made accessible to the public while the Iraq Documentation Project be emulated, which placed on the Internet tons of Iraqi documents captured in Kurdistan, in 1991.