The United States last month shipped a historic archive of Baath regime documents to Iraq, but the government is keeping mum about its location and fate, given the political sensitivity of the documents.

Omar al-Jaffal

The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi is treating the Baath Party archives that supposedly arrived in Iraq in late August with complete confidentiality.

Despite media reports Aug. 31 about the arrival in Baghdad of tons of documents relating to one of the darkest periods in the history of Iraq, the Iraqi government has yet to issue an official statement announcing their fate or how it will be dealing with the papers.

Hisham Daoud, one of the government’s most prominent advisers and sometimes its media spokesperson, told Al-Monitor, “I, unfortunately, do not have any information about this dossier.”

Daoud referred Al-Monitor to the Iraqi Embassy in Washington or to one of the Washington-based researchers who previously worked on the Baath archive. He also suggested asking the Ministry of Culture about the documents.

For his part, Iraqi Minister of Culture Hassan Nadhim did not respond to the two letters sent by Al-Monitor inquiring about the documents.

Iraq’s Foreign Ministry official spokesman Ahmed al-Sahaf did not have any answers regarding the documents either, and he rushed to suggest resorting to Kadhimi’s media office for information about the subject.

The tons of documents pertaining to the Baath Party, which ruled Iraq with an iron fist for nearly three decades, garnered great interest from Kadhimi, who worked for many years at the Iraqi Memory Foundation led by Iraqi writer Kanan Makiya. The foundation seeks to instill in all Iraqis memories of the Baath Party’s crimes.

Kadhimi participated with Makiya in the process of having the Baath dossiers sent to the United States following the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

Read more from the source: Al-Monitor