ICOM is the International Coalition of museum specialist wished by Neil Mac
Gregor, but must act as such. First: Icom Secretariat should collect all
possible informations from Iraq, should contact the Iraqi museologist in
order to know what they need, should collect all suggestions from Icom
members and inform the international committees concerned, in order to
organize a tecnical and scientific programm.
Giovanni Pinna
At 11.17 15/04/2003 +0200, you wrote:
>I realise that the ICOM-CC statement on the looting of Museums in Baghdad,
>Mosul, and elsewhere in Iraq will have no effect on what has already
>happened, albeit a psychological one.
>However, we can hope to ensure that incidents like these are better
>prepared for in future conflicts. And as Pinna repeats, UNESCO and ICOM
>must push UK and USA and others to ratify the international Conventions.
>
>Despite that, we naturally have to recognise that the damage has happened
>and offer our help and assistance to save what remains.
>
>In collaboration with ICOM and its international organisations ICOM-CC is
>offering its very broad conservation expertise. ICOM-CC will be prepared
>to find a team of professional conservators and conservation specialists
>that as a task force can be send into IRAQ and help recover the museums.
>
>I understand that a meeting hosted by UNESCO (this Thursday in Paris) will
>discuss what to do.
>
>Let me quote Neil MacGregor, Director of the British Museum, who on the
>radio this morning stressed the following two points of action: FIRST the
>museums etc. should be sealed and not swept and tidied in order to try to
>save smashed objects. SECOND, he called for an "international coalition"
>of museum specialists to assist Iraq.
>
>If ICOM-CC should be called upon we shall do our utmost to aid the Iraq
>museum professionals.
>
>Jorgen Wadum
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
>Van: Giovanni Pinna [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
>Verzonden: maandag 14 april 2003 23:25
>Aan: [log in to unmask]
>Onderwerp: Re: ICOM-CC appalled by looting in Iraq.
>
>
>The damage is done! The Iraq Museum has been plunded, the Bagadad library
>is burned. There are specific responsabilities. Unesco and Icom must push
>UK and USA to ratify the international Conventions. Any other discussion is
>useless!
>However Icom must start organizing an active cooperation with museums of
>Iraq; a first step can be to contact the iraqi museologists and invite them
>to join freely (and free of charge) Icom.
>
>Giovanni Pinna
>
>
>
>At 17.12 14/04/2003 +0100, you wrote:
> >On Mon, 14 Apr 2003, Sophia Labadi wrote:
> >
> >++++ [CLIP] ++++
> >
> > > ICOM-CC said:
> > > 'ICOM-CC urges the so-called Coalition Forces to act according to The
> Hague
> > > Convention'.
> > >
> > > This is just a rhetorical question:
> > > Neither the USA nor the UK have ratified the 1954 Hague Convention. Why
> > then
> > > would they act according to it?
> > >
> > > Sophia.
> > >
> >==================================
> >
> >Sophia:
> >
> >Not a rhetorical question at all, in fact.
> >
> >It is true that neither country has ratified either the 1954 Hague
> >Convention, nor the First Protocol (which has the effect of making illegal
> >almost all actual or purported "transfers of ownership" of cultural
> >property in war zones.)
> >
> >However:
> >
> >1. Iraq is a party to both, so the Convention applies to the territory,
> >(the "lex situs" rule under both international and national law) and
> >arguably therefore to everyone within the territory and all actions by
> >them regardless of their nationality,
> >
> >2. The United States Defense and State Departments jointly formally
> >recommended in about 1996 that the President should seek to ratify the
> >Hague Convention (though not the First Protocol - presumably due to
> >objections from the art and antiquities trade). The Convention was duly
> >sent to the senate for ratification in 1998, but successive Foreign
> >Relations Committee Chairmen (of both Parties0 have failed to even table
> >the proposal for debate.
> >
> >3. At the 1999 Diplomatic Conference which agreed to update the Hague
> >Convention through a Second Protocol the United Kingdom also stated that
> >it now supported Ratification of the Convention (though not the Protocol)
> >and subject to Ministerial;l approval hoped to Ratify alongside the USA.
> >
> >4. The publicly stated policy of both The USA and the UK is to comply
> >with the principles of the Hague Convention even though neither country is
> >yet formally a party to it.
> >
> >To me, the puzzle is why has there been such apparent chaos, looting and
> >destruction in West Baghdad, with the military authorities arguing that
> >nothing could be done about this immediately. In total contrast,
> >following standard US military principles, the US Marine Corps which are
> >in charge in East Baghdad seems to have moved immediately to assert and
> >maintain law and order, so looting, arson etc. has been kept under
> >control. (For example, though little publicised by the international
> >press, who are largely holed up in hotels in the Business and
> >Government Quarter in West Baghdad, the local medical chief this
> >afternoon reported in a TV interview that all 12 hospitals east of the
> >River Tigris were immediately guarded and continue to function, with
> >little or no looting.)
> >
> >Unfortunately the national museum was on the wrong side of the river,
> >where there seems to have been quite a different interpretation of United
> >States and International Military and Humanitarian Law from that applied
> >by the commanders of the Marines in East Baghdad.
> >
> >
> >
> >Patrick Boylan
> >
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