ˇˇˇˇLONDON, April 29 (Xinhuanet) -- Top-level antiquity experts from some of the
world's leading museums met in London on Tuesday, urging the US forces to seal
the Iraqi border to stop the smuggling of pillaged Iraqi cultural treasures.
ˇˇˇˇMeanwhile, the conference, organized by the British Museum and the UN
cultural arm UNESCO, also asked the UN Security Council toimpose an embargo on
all international trade on Iraqi cultural heritage.
ˇˇˇˇUNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura was set to meet with UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Wednesday to press the case fora ban, Mounir
Bouechenaki, assistant director-general with the UNESCO culture sector, told a
press conference after the experts' meeting.
ˇˇˇˇBritish Museum Director Neil MacGregor said the experts had unanimously
agreed to "appeal to the United States urgently to secure the frontiers so that
the further export of antiquities canbe minimized."
ˇˇˇˇ"This (the looting of Iraqi antiquities) is without question the greatest
disaster for a national collection since the Second World War," he said.
ˇˇˇˇDonny George, research director at the Iraqi National Museum, reviewed the
situation of and after plundering to his colleagues from the British Museum in
London, the Louvre in Paris, the Getty Museum in California, New York's
Metropolitan Museum and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
ˇˇˇˇLooted items had already taken out of the country since US border controls
were nonexistent, George said, noting he had evidence that some of the looters
were from organized criminal gangs.
ˇˇˇˇ"American control at the border is almost zero," he lamented.
ˇˇˇˇ"Anyone can take anything and go out. This is a tragedy. They (the US
troops) should control the border, they should check everything, because the
bleeding of antiquities is still going on," he said.
ˇˇˇˇGeorge also suggested the US troops should be blamed for the looting since
an employee of the Iraqi National Museum had begged them to park their tanks
nearby so as to prevent looters from coming inside.
ˇˇˇˇ"They told him they did not have orders for that. Was it done
intentionally? I don't know," George said.
ˇˇˇˇ"Moving a tank 50 to 60 meters (yards) to stand in front of themuseum would
have saved the world's heritage. You should ask them why they did not protect a
place they knew contained the heritage of mankind," George said, describing the
looting "the crime of century."
ˇˇˇˇ"They protected the ministry of oil but did not protect the National
Museum," George said of the Americans.
ˇˇˇˇBritish Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said at the press conference: "We
have to kill the market in stolen Iraqi treasures.We are determined to make sure
that the UK is not a market for stolen Iraqi imports."
ˇˇˇˇUNESCO is to send an expert team to Iraq within the next few weeks to
compile a database of stolen artefacts so that everyone from Interpol to art
auctioneers will know what is missing and canseize whatever comes up for sale.
ˇˇˇˇThousands of priceless and irreplaceable objects have been missing after
looting in Baghdad following the toppling of Saddam Hussein' regime by US-led
coalition forces.
ˇˇˇˇAmong the missing objects are a 5,000-year-old marble vase and a headless
statue of a king. Another statue of an Assyrian king has been brought back to
the museum but in pieces.
ˇˇˇˇ"I call it the crime of the century. They looted material that belonged to
mankind," George said.
ˇˇˇˇThere has been widespread criticism of coalition forces, particularly the
US forces in Baghdad, for their failure to protect Iraq's cultural treasures.
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