‘Destruction of Mideast historical sites is war crime’: UN

CAIRO // The chief of the UN’s education and culture agency launched a strong appeal in Cairo on Wednesday, saying that the destruction and looting of archaeological sites in the Middle East — such as the rampage perpetrated by the ISIL group in Iraq — should be condemned as a “war crime”.

Unesco director-general Irina Bokova of Bulgaria also told a gathering of 10 Arab nations at a conference in Cairo that the theft and destruction of antiquities in the region was a tactic of war.

The conference was held in response to the destruction of ancient temples and artefacts in Iraq by the extremist ISIL group as well as the looting and smuggling of antiquities in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya.

“The stakes are high,” declared Ms Bokova.

“The destruction and looting of archaeological sites and museums have reached unprecedented levels. The destruction of cultural heritage, the cultural cleansing, is being used as a tactic of war to terrify populations, to finance criminal activities and to spread hatred.”

“We must consider it for what it is: a war crime,” she stressed at the meeting.

Recent videos on social media showing ISIL militants destroying ancient artefacts in Iraq’s museums, blowing up 3,000-year-old temples and destroying priceless heritage. The videos have sent shock waves through the archaeological community and international organisations.

In some of them, militants can be seen taking sledge hammers to the iconic winged-bulls of Assyria and sawing apart floral reliefs in the palace of Ashurnasirpal II in Nimrud before the entire site is destroyed with explosives.

Experts speculate that the large pieces are destroyed with sledgehammers and drills for the benefit of the cameras, while the more portable items like figurines, masks and ancient clay cuneiform tablets are smuggled to dealers in Turkey from where they make their way to the antiquities’ black market.

ISIL controls large swathes of territory in Iraq and neighbouring Syria, an area that is home to priceless historical treasures. Deborah Lehr of the Antiquities Coalition, the group behind the Cairo conference, said the militants’ trade in artefacts smuggled out of Syria and Iraq was valued at billions of dollars.

The extremists, Ms Lehr said, were posting these images to “intimidate those who enjoy beliefs that are contrary to their very narrow views and to fund their nefarious causes”.

The problem is not restricted to Iraq and Syria.

Ms Lehr said estimates put at $3 billion the value of historical artefacts looted or produced from illegal digs and smuggled abroad in the four years of turmoil since the popular uprising in Egypt that toppled the rule of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak.

Libya, which has been in much worse turmoil since the revolt against dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, is thought to be suffering from the same problem, but there were no estimates of the value of its illicit trade in antiquities.

* Associated Press