Thanks Indigo,

ICOM-CC purposely did not mention Iraq in their statement on the dangers to
our cultural heritage as a result of armed conflicts. The ICOM-CC statement
is referring to armed conflicts in general wherever they may take place. I
therefore do not regard the ICOM-CC statement as a party-political statement
but as an expression of concern for the world's cultural heritage, a concern
that necessarily applies to all readers of this list.

Jørgen Wadum

On the note of Iraqi antiquities let me share with you another statement:

Date:         Fri, 7 Mar 2003 15:46:07 +0100
From:         Secrétariat ICOM <[log in to unmask]>

STATEMENT BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE BLUE SHIELD ON THE IMPACT OF
A WAR ON CULTURAL HERITAGE IN IRAQ

The International Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) expresses its profound
concern about the potential damage to, and destruction of, cultural heritage
in the event of war in Iraq.

Whilst the ICBS is keenly aware that there are other compelling concerns at
times of armed conflict, not least the loss of human life, the Committee
urges all the governments concerned to work within the spirit of The Hague
Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed
Conflict, to protect archives, libraries, monuments and sites, and museums,
if war breaks out in Iraq and in the region.

The ICBS believes that, access to authentic cultural heritage is a basic
human right. Damage to, and destruction of, cultural heritage represents an
impoverishment, not only of the cultural life of the community directly
concerned, but of humanity as a whole. This belief is expressed in several
international conventions. Iraq is universally recognized to be especially
rich in cultural heritage. The area is often described as the 'cradle of
civilisation'. The loss of parts of that heritage would certainly represent
a loss to all the peoples of the world.

The ICBS wishes to stress that international humanitarian law prohibits the
use of cultural property for military purposes or to shield military
objectives.

In the aftermath of any war in Iraq, the ICBS calls upon all governments in
a position to act to provide the necessary resources, human and financial,
to assess the damage caused by the conflict to cultural heritage and to
implement plans for the necessary repairs and restoration.  In the case of
looting of cultural property, detailed plans by trained experts should be
prepared for the repatriation or restitution of the property concerned, with
the involvement of Iraqi scholars and heritage professionals.

The ICBS is willing to respond to requests for technical assistance and
co-ordination which may be required by providing advice and assistance
within the resources available.

Meanwhile, the ICBS calls upon all governments which have not yet become
party to The Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the
Event of Armed Conflict and its two Protocols to do so.

Adopted by the International Committee of the Blue Shield, 7th March 2003.

***************************************

Background information

The International Committee for the Blue Shield (ICBS) comprises
representatives of four non-governmental organisations:
-International Council on Archives (ICA)
-International Council on Museums (ICOM)
-International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS)
-International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA)

ICBS embraces archives, libraries, monuments and sites, and museums. Its
mission is to work for the protection of cultural Heritage by
co-coordinating preventative measures to meet and respond to emergency
situations, both natural and man-made.

The Blue Shield is the equivalent of the Red Cross/Red Crescent in the field
of cultural heritage.

The vital work of the ICBS was recognized in the Second Protocol to The
Hague Convention, adopted in March 1999. This will give the Committee a new
role to advise the future Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property
in the Event of Armed Conflict, to be set up when the Protocol comes into
force. It will do so three months after 20 states have ratified the
Protocol. This is expected to occur in late 2003 or early 2004.

FURTHER INFORMATION is available from:

Ross Shimmon
President
International Committee of the Blue Shield
C/o International Federation of Library associations and Institutions
P O Box 95312
2509 CH
The Hague
Netherlands
Tel: +31 70 3140884
Fax: +31 70 3834827
Email: [log in to unmask]

Christiane Logie
Secretary
International Committee of the Blue Shield
Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Boulevard de l'Empereur 4, 1000, Bruxelles,
Belgique
Email: [log in to unmask]

More information about the Blue Shield at: http://icom.museum/emergency.html


-----Original Message-----
From:   Museum discussion list [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Indigo Nights
Sent:   Tuesday, March 11, 2003 3:38 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Casualty count could include Iraq antiquities

From: indigo

ICOM issued a statement this morning about the losses associated with a
potential war in Iraq.  The question was then asked if it was ok to make a
political statement.

The attached article was posted to MuseNews-History (
http://groups.yahoo.com/

--------------------
Casualty count could include Iraq antiquities
--------------------

By Bill Glauber
Tribune staff reporter

March 10, 2003

Across five decades, weathering local coups and regional wars, McGuire
Gibson of the University of Chicago has sifted through Iraq's rich soil in a
quest to understand civilization's cradle.

Now, amid the threat of a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, Gibson worries about
the human and archeological cost of war on a land rich in antiquities.

"A 1,000-pound bomb put down through a major archeological site would make a
great mess," said Gibson, a professor of Mesopotamian archeology who made
his first visit to Iraq in 1964.

In the last few months, Gibson and other American scholars, art lawyers and
museum curators have worked to head off an archeological catastrophe, making
their case privately to Pentagon officials and publicly in media interviews.

They have raised alarms about the potential for inadvertent bomb damage,
noting the harm done to archeological sites during the 1991 Persian Gulf
war.

They have raised awareness that losses could occur after the bombing stops,
recalling the looting of up to 4,000 objects from Iraq's provincial museums
after the conflict that liberated Kuwait.

Gibson also has sought to speak up on behalf of some of his Iraqi
colleagues, devoted scholars who may ride out the bombing as they did in
1991--sleeping beside antiquities in the bowels of Baghdad's Iraq Museum.

The message that Iraq's archeological treasures should be preserved has
received a hearing in Washington, where Pentagon officials met with
archeology experts in late January. Among those initiating the meeting were
Gibson, who heads the American Association for Research in Baghdad, and
representatives of the American Council for Cultural Policy.

"Roughly for an hour, they were on transmit and we were on receive," said
Joseph Collins, a deputy assistant secretary of defense.

Pentagon expands site list

Pentagon officials said they began compiling a list of archeological sites
before the 1991 war. They are working with scholars to expand the list.

The effort won't make targeting risk-free, but it could minimize
destruction.

Collins said "a very large number of sites, well over 100," have been added
to the Pentagon's database, which is "made available to the people who
actually do the targeting."

He acknowledged that the military would attempt "to do whatever we can to
avoid loss of life and do the minimum amount of damage to the nation's
infrastructure, including its cultural heritage."

Cataloging Iraq's archeological wonders is an enormous undertaking. From
palaces and ziggurats to desert mounds, the landscape abounds with the
remnants of ancient Mesopotamia, the land between the Tigris and Euphrates
Rivers. The first cities, first writing and foundations of irrigation and
agriculture can be traced to the area.

Gibson said that about 10,000 sites are known, but thousands remain
unmapped.

Iraq is an evocative land for Christians, Jews and Muslims. It is home to
Babylon and Nineveh and Ur, believed to be the birthplace of Abraham. It is
filled with treasures of Islamic art and architecture.

"This is where it all starts," Gibson said.

Many of the most priceless artifacts discovered over the years by
archeologists are in the Iraq Museum in Baghdad. The museum was reopened in
2000 after 10 years lost to war and international sanctions and the
painstaking rebuilding of a collection of about 10,000 objects.

In glass cases are 40,000-year-old stone and flint objects, 5,000-year-old
cylinder seals in mint condition and 4,500-year-old gold leaf earrings once
buried with Sumerian princesses.

In the museum's basement are perfectly preserved Assyrian reliefs from the
9th Century B.C. The 10-foot-high marble slabs once lined a royal palace at
Khorsabad; now they are arrayed on two walls leading to a pair of 38-ton
winged bull gates.

During the gulf war, the Iraq Museum was evacuated, but the large reliefs
could not be moved. Museum officials piled sandbags and giant sponge-like
mattresses in front of the objects to preserve them. They also slept near
the objects.

The operation to secure the museum's treasures was a group effort, said
Donny George, the director general of research and studies at Iraq's Board
of Antiquities and Heritage.

Missiles not the only threat

The museum didn't take a direct hit during the bombing campaign, but a
communications tower near the front gates was destroyed by a missile, museum
officials said.

Preservation efforts during the 1991 fighting weren't entirely successful;
some objects stored in the basement sustained damage from water and
humidity. Some objects transferred to provincial museums were lost in
postwar looting.

John Malcolm Russell, an art history and archeology professor at the
Massachusetts College of Art, described the looting at one such site at the
ancient city of Uma.

"The site was looted with massive earthmovers and dump trucks," he said.
"I'd say tens of thousands of objects were lost."

Restoring order, George said, has been a difficult and dangerous task, with
archeologists at sites in southern Iraq often accompanied by security guards
carrying assault rifles. But he refuses to back down in the face of risk.

"Antiquities are not like modern things," he said. "If a building is
destroyed, it can be rebuilt. But if you have a piece of art that is the
only one of its kind and that piece has reached you from 3000 B.C., then to
lose that work is a great loss. Archeology is the substance of history, the
evidence of mankind. Even a little loss is a great loss."


Copyright (c) 2003, Chicago Tribune


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