On Fri, 16 Apr 1999, Beltz, Jennifer wrote:

> I have noticed several messages in recent days which refer to the
> destruction of historic buildings and museums as a result of the ongoing
> conflict in Kosovo.  If you haven't already done so, you may want to refer
> to the April 15th Washington Post editorial by Rep. Rod Blagojevich which
> calls for a diplomatic agreement that, among other things, would protect as
> many of Kosovo's sacred Orthodox cathedrals and historic places as possible.

=============================

I despair in the face of such ignorance on the part of law-makers and the
press, since there ARE, of course, precisely such agreements!

This principle has been part of US Army General Staff Orders since the
Civil War, reinforced by the updating of these by Gen. Eisenhower
in 1944 and the US adoption of the Treaty of Washington (Roerich Pact) of
1935.  At the international level, the principle of protecting historic
and religious monuments, museums, libraries and archives has been part of the
general and universal Customary Laws of War since the 1899 and 1907 Hague
Conventions.

There has also been a specific cultural protection treaty provision since
1954 - the Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the
Event of Armed Conflict (which also covers non-international conflicts).
Though certain major powers including the USA and UK signed the 1954
Hague Convention but then did not proceed with ratification due to "Cold
War" considerations, both have always applied its provisions at the
military operations level, and both are now actively seeking formal
ratification. (In the US case, the instrument of ratification was sent by
the President to the Senate for approval in January 1999 - something I
would have expected a member of the House of Representatives specially
interested in this area to have been aware of).

A significant strengthening of the 1954 Hague Convention through an
additional 2nd Protocol was prepared at a Diplomatic Conference in the
The Hague again through the second half of March 1999, and will be
formally signed by up to 85 States in The Hague on 17 May (and as one of
the high points of a week of special events marking the centenary of the
first Hague Peace Conference).

It is well known that in the case of the Gulf War, in order to comply with
relevant international law the coalition powers carried out extensive
"desk" research, consultations with relevant experts and much special
reconnaissance to identify significant cultural monuments and institutions.

These were then placed "off limits" for both air attacks and the ground
campaign that followed it. Even when the Iraqi authorities placed MIG
aircraft within the walls of the ancient City of Ur, and anti-aircraft
batteries on the walls of another, (negating their protection under
international law) the Coalition refused to respond to attack these
weapons.

Though I have no seen any specific information on this point in relation
to the current NATO campaign against Serbia yet, it seems to me virtually
certain that parallel procedures and explicit orders will have been in
place since long before the start of the air attacks on Yugoslavia.

Incidentally, though Jennifer refers to reports of the "destruction" of
monuments and museums in the Kosovo campaign, there do not seem to have
been any authenticated evidence of direct attacks on or "destruction" of
significant monuments or museums even in the Yugoslavs' own announcements
and web site (www.yuheritage.com). The nearest to this seems to be the
late 1920s Danube bridge at Novi Sad (which may have been on the national
monuments list as an engineering structure?). All the other reports seem
to be of blast etc. damage (e.g. the extensive loss of the external glass
walls of the Novi Sad Museum close to the bridge referred to above).

This is not to say that there will not be much so-called "collateral"
damage to historic monuments and other cultural buildings in the current
military activities, but so far there seems to have been nothing in
anyway comparable to the massive deliberate targeting, destruction and
demolition of hundreds of monuments in e.g. the Eastern Slavonia and
Konavle-Dubrovnik regions of Croatia in 1991-2 by the Yugoslav and
Montenegran Armies, or in Bosnia in 1992-95 by both official and
irregular forces of all three communities.


Patrick Boylan