Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Iraq Memory Foundation issuances
Dates: 2003-2009
Collection Number: 2010C3
Creator: Mu'assasat al-dhākirah al-'Irāqīyah
Collection Size:
4 manuscript boxes and 1513 digital video files
(1.6 linear feet)
Repository:
Hoover Institution Archives
Stanford, California 94305-6010
Abstract: File-based videorecordings, videocassettes, optical discs, and brochures relating to political conditions and human rights
violations in Iraq under the Ba'th party regime. Includes digitized video testimony of survivors.
Physical Location: Hoover Institution Archives
Languages:
Arabic,
Kurdish,
English
The collection is open for research. While boxes 2-4 are closed, digital use copies of their contents are available. Use copies
of all videorecordings in this collection are available for immediate access.
Users must sign an "Access Criteria and Use Agreement" form that stipulates:
(1) The materials may not be duplicated;
(2) Quotations may be protected by copyright law;
(3) Actual names of persons found in the collection, except persons named in the Dujail Tribunals (October 19, 2005 - November 5, 2006), may not be published in any form;
(4) No interviews, video/audio reports, podcasts, or commentary that uses or quotes from the materials is allowed without prior written permission from the Iraq Memory Foundation;
(5) The Hoover Institution and Iraq Memory Foundation do not verify the accuracy of the content of these materials; and
(6) Violation of this agreement may result in forfeiture of research privileges.
This is only an unofficial summary of the main provisions of the "Access Criteria and Use Agreement" form. Please contact the Hoover Institution Archives to obtain the precise legal language.
(1) The materials may not be duplicated;
(2) Quotations may be protected by copyright law;
(3) Actual names of persons found in the collection, except persons named in the Dujail Tribunals (October 19, 2005 - November 5, 2006), may not be published in any form;
(4) No interviews, video/audio reports, podcasts, or commentary that uses or quotes from the materials is allowed without prior written permission from the Iraq Memory Foundation;
(5) The Hoover Institution and Iraq Memory Foundation do not verify the accuracy of the content of these materials; and
(6) Violation of this agreement may result in forfeiture of research privileges.
This is only an unofficial summary of the main provisions of the "Access Criteria and Use Agreement" form. Please contact the Hoover Institution Archives to obtain the precise legal language.
Quotations from this collection may be protected by copyright law. The Hoover Institution, Stanford University, does not hold
copyright to any of the materials in the collection; it is the researcher's responsibility, when necessary, to obtain copyright
permission. The Hoover Institution is not responsible for any misuse by researchers of quotations obtained from this collection.
For tangible items: [Identification of item], Iraq Memory Foundation issuances, [Box number], Hoover Institution Archives.
For file-based items: [Identification of item] (Electronic Record), [File name], [Series title], Iraq Memory Foundation issuances,
Hoover Institution Archives.
Materials were acquired by the Hoover Institution Archives in 2009. An increment of videocassettes and optical discs was received
in 2012.
Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. To determine if this has occurred, find
the collection in Stanford University's online catalog at
http://searchworks.stanford.edu/ . Materials have been added to the collection if the number of boxes listed in the catalog is larger than the number of boxes
listed in this finding aid.
Hiẓb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī records, Hoover Institution Archives
Kanan Makiya papers, Hoover Institution Archives
The Mu'assasat al-dhākirah al-'Irāqīyah (Iraq Memory Foundation (IMF)) is a private nonprofit organization for documentation
of Iraqi history under the Ba'th party regime. It was founded by Kanan Makiya in 1992 as the Iraq Research and Documentation
Project (IRDP) at Harvard University's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Makiya had just returned from a November 1991 trip
to northern Iraq, where he viewed the archive of documents of the Hiẓb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī (Ba'th Arab Socialist
Party of Iraq) that had been seized by Iraqi rebels. Makiya was accompanied by a BBC filmmaker who filmed his investigation
of the Iraqi government's campaign of ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Kurds (the Anfal). The film,
The Road to Hell, aired in January 1992 on BBC and then on PBS as a
Frontline documentary under the title "Saddam's Killing Fields." Now president of the Iraq Memory Foundation, Makiya is the Sylvia
Hassenfeld Professor of Modern Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. He has written many books, including
Republic of Fear: The Politics of Modern Iraq (1989).
In 1993 the IRDP developed a plan to preserve the Ba'thist documents Makiya had examined in Iraq. Over the next ten years
the IRDP received and processed documents and transcribed Iraqi refugee interviews.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, the IRDP relocated to Baghdad, where it registered as a Jam'iyah (society)
in Iraq under the name Iraq Memory Foundation. It expanded its mission to include documenting all facets of the Iraqi experience
under the regime of Saddam Hussein from 1968 to 2003. Also in 2003, the IMF acquired the Ba'th Regional Command collection
from the basement of the Ba'th party headquarters in Baghdad.
The IMF began its Oral History on Film Project, which records the testimonies of witnesses to Ba'th regime repression, in
2003. Documentary filmmaker Mustafa Al-Kadhimiy, who formerly headed the Department of Programs and Planning at al-Iraqiyya
television, led the project. In 2005, al-Iraqiyya began broadcasting ten-minute excerpts from the testimonies during prime
time and they quickly became one of Iraq's top-rated TV programs. The IMF went on to produce several seasons of a series called
Legacy of Evil for Iraqi television. This weekly program consists of interviews with witnesses, Saddam-era video footage, and presentations
of documents created by the regime. In total, the IMF has more than 1700 hours of footage, including videos created by the
Ba'th regime (now allocated to the Hiẓb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī records at Hoover), oral histories, the
Legacy of Evil archive, and Saddam Hussein trial videorecordings. The IMF claims the copyrights on all the oral history videos it produces
(IMF Prospectus 2008, page 26, box 1).
On September 21, 2005, IMF directors Kanan Makiya and Hassan Mneimneh testified before the human rights caucus of the U.S.
Congress on the importance of the work of the IMF. The IMF also provided documents for use in the trial of Saddam Hussein.
The IMF continues to process documents, record oral histories, and collect and exhibit art that shows the ways Iraqis responded
to the Saddam regime. It plans to develop a Museum of Remembrance and Research Center on the Crossed Swords Ceremonial Parade
Grounds in Baghdad. It has offices in Baghdad, London, and Washington, D.C.
Scope and Content of Collection
This collection consists of materials created by the Iraq Memory Foundation (IMF) since its inception in 1992. Ba'th Party
records collected by the IMF comprise a separate collection, the Hiẓb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī records.
The collection is organized in six series, most of which were defined and named by the Iraq Memory Foundation: Printed matter,
Videocassettes and optical discs,
Iraqi Testimonies,
Legacy of Evil, Documentaries, and Recorded proceedings from the Saddam trials. All materials except the printed matter are described in
the "Oral History Project Video Documents" section of the searchable database designed and populated by the Iraq Memory Foundation.
This database was acquired with the collection and is available at the Hoover Institution.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in Stanford University's online public access
catalog.
Civil rights--Iraq.
Iraq--History--1979-1991.
Iraq--History--1991-2003.
Hiẓb al-Ba'th al-'Arabī al-Ishtirākī (Iraq)