USCBS News

by The Associated Press

 

BAGHDAD November 24, 2009, 07:41 am ET

 

Google is documenting Iraq’s national museum and will post photographs of its ancient treasures on the Internet early next year, Google chief Eric Schmidt announced Tuesday.

 

The museum was ransacked in the chaotic aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s ouster in April 2003, and only reopened to visitors early this year. Schmidt, who toured the museum with U.S. Ambassador Christopher Hill on Tuesday, said it was important for the world to see Iraq’s rich heritage and contribution to world culture.

 

“The history of the beginning of — literally — civilization is made right here and is preserved here in this museum,” Schmidt said at a ceremony attended by Iraqi officials.

 

“I can think of no better use of our time and our resources than to make the images and ideas from your civilization, from the very beginnings of time, available to billions of people worldwide,” he said.

 

Schmidt said Google has taken some 14,000 photographs of the museum and its artifacts, and the images will be available online in early 2010.

 

The antiquities in the museum’s vast storage vaults and artifacts from other sites across the country will also be photographed as they become available and then put on the internet, he said.

 

The museum was among many institutions, including universities, hospitals, libraries and art galleries, that were looted or set ablaze across Iraq in the days and weeks that followed Saddam’s ouster.

 

The museum holds artifacts from the Stone Age through the Babylonian, Assyrian and Islamic periods. The richness of its collection and its importance as a caretaker of the relics of early civilization triggered an outcry around the world.

 

U.S. troops, the sole power in the city at the time, were intensely criticized for not protecting the treasures at the museum and other cultural institutions like the national library and the Saddam Art Center, a museum of modern Iraqi art.

 

The national museum reopened in February after being closed for nearly six years. Its director, Amira Edan, said around 5,000 of the estimated 15,000 artifacts that were looted have been recovered so far.

 

Edan said Google’s project marks another step toward normalcy for the museum, and will provide a useful tool for scholars studying ancient Mesopotamia, but also “a kind of tourism journey” for people with a more casual interest in the region’s history.

 

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120739539

Sunday, 22 Nov, 2009 | 11:22 AM PST | 

 

TAXILA: Archaeologists warn that the Taliban are destroying Pakistan’s ancient Gandhara heritage and rich Buddhist legacy as pilgrimage and foreign research dries up in the country’s northwest.

 

‘Militants are the enemies of culture,’ said Abdul Nasir Khan, curator of Taxila Museum, one of the premier archaeological collections in Pakistan.

 

‘It is very clear that if the situation carries on like this, it will destroy our culture and will destroy our cultural heritage,’ he told AFP.

 

Taxila, a small town around 20 kilometres (13 miles) south of Islamabad, is one of Pakistan’s foremost archaeological attractions given its history as a centre of Buddhist learning from the 5th century BC to the 2nd century.

 

Violence is on the rise in Pakistan as Taliban bombers and gunmen strike with increasing frequency and intensity in the cities of North West Frontier Province and around the capital Islamabad.

 

‘Even in Taxila we don’t feel safe. The local administration has warned us about a possible attack on this museum. We have taken some extra security precautions but they aren’t sufficient and we lack funds,’ said Khan.

 

‘For weeks we don’t get even a single foreign visitor. If visitors don’t come, if sites are not preserved and protected, if research stops, what do you think will be the future of archaeology?’ he said.

 

In March 2001, Taliban militants in neighbouring Afghanistan blew up two 1,500-year-old Bamiyan Buddha statues in defiance of international appeals.

 

The Islamist militia has since spread into Pakistan. Their opposition to music, art, dance, girls’ education and idolatry makes archaeologists fear that Pakistani Buddhist relics are in the eye of the storm.

 

Italian archaeologists were active in Pakistan’s northwest Swat valley from 1956 until they reluctantly discontinued work in 2007 after Taliban fighters led by radical cleric Maulana Fazlullah rose up demanding sharia law.

 

‘It is not planned to carry on any research activity,’ Luca Olivieri, co-director the Italian archaeological mission in Pakistan, told AFP by email.

 

After 17 years as curator in Swat, Khan took no risks. With the Taliban killing and bombing their way through the valley, the museum closed in 2008 and he evacuated the most priceless antiquities.

 

That September, the Taliban twice tried to blow up 7th century Buddhist relics - damaging a rock engraved with images of Buddha that for centuries had been a pilgrimage site.

 

This year, the rebels marched to within 100 kilometres (60 miles) of Islamabad, precipitating a major military operation in the northwest district and followed up with a current offensive in South Waziristan.

 

‘This is the worst time for archaeology. Militancy has affected it very badly. There were 15-20 foreign missions working in this field, now this research has completely stopped,’ Khan told AFP.

 

He says the army has requisitioned the museum building in Swat’s main town of Mingora. Despite the summer offensive, which appears to have flushed out Taliban havens in Swat for now, he doubts life will soon return to normal.

 

‘I don’t see any chance in the near future of re-opening the Swat museum. The situation is still not suitable.

 

‘The museum building was badly damaged in a bomb blast. The display cases are broken and the building needs complete renovation,’ he said.

 

‘There is still fear in people’s minds but I hope that the army will succeed in bringing back normalcy,’ he added.  The situation is not much better further south.

 

Peshawar, the troubled capital of northwest Pakistan known for its Buddhist heritage and archaeology, used to attract thousands of tourists but security fears and bomb attacks make it a no-go area for foreigners.

 

Its museum is open, but one gate has been sealed and cement barricades outside the second allow only pedestrians to enter.

 

‘For a year and a half, foreign tourists have completely stopped visiting this part of Pakistan,’ Qazi Ijaz, an official at Peshawar museum, told AFP.

 

‘The nucleus of the Gandhara civilization in Swat is closed and that was their main interest,’ he said.

 

‘The tourist companies have closed. Foreign visitors have stopped coming and museums with monuments and other archaeological sites look deserted,’ he added.

 

There are about 10 museums in northwest Pakistan, including one under construction to protect Kalash culture in the Chitral valley, where a Greek volunteer was kidnapped in September and reportedly smuggled to Afghanistan.

 

The fair skin and light eyes of the Kalash inspire academic speculation that they descend from an ancient Middle Eastern population or soldiers of Alexander the Great’s army which conquered the area in the fourth century BC.

 

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/pakistan/provinces/03-taliban-suffocate-pakistan-buddhist-heritage-ss-01

By Cecilia Brothers, Legacy’s CR Specialist

Department of Defense Legacy Resource Management Program

Cultural Resources UPDATE Newsletter, November 2009

 

On 23 October 2009, the Lawyers’ Committee for Cultural Heritage Preservation (LCCHP) and the US Committee of the Blue Shield presented the conference Culture and Conflict: The US & the 1954 Hague Convention, which took place at the National Trust for Historic Preservation headquarters in Washington D.C. The conference aimed to consider the domestic and international ramifications of the US ratification of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and to foster dialogue among representatives from federal agencies, other government organizations and NGOs, as well as interested parties and subject matter experts. Key agencies and organizations, such as DoI, NPS and DoD, took part in the speaking panels. Department of Defense attendees and presenters included: General Counsel, International Policy for Installations and Environment, Army Judge Advocate General for Law of War Matters, US Army Civil Affairs and Psychological Operations Command, the Legacy Resource Management Program and the Army, Marine Corps and DoD Deputy Federal Preservation Officers.

Despite playing an integral role in the drafting of the 1954 Hague Convention following WWII, the US was not party to the Convention until September of 2008 when it was ratified by the US Senate. (The instrument of ratification was officially deposited with UNESCO on 13 March 2009.) The US now joins 121 other nations who officially recognize the importance of cultural heritage preservation during times of armed conflict.

Corine Wegener, President of the US Committee of the Blue Shield, highlighted that US ratification is significant to domestic and international cultural heritage policy. US overseas operations since 2003, particularly in Iraq, have led interested parties to assess the state of cultural heritage in the current wartime context, which facilitated the progression towards US ratification of the 1954 Hague Convention. Various organizations came together to draft a statement in support of ratification, which was presented to the US Senate at the time of their legislative review in the Spring of 2008. US ratification of the 1954 Hague Convention has been a goal for many in the international preservation community, as it signifies the US’s commitment to cultural property protection during armed conflict.

The American Anthropological Association (AAA) sums up the Convention perfectly as it relates to military operations. “The Convention establishes terms meant to ensure the continued preservation of archaeological sites, historical structures… and other forms of cultural property. These terms compel nations to curtail the theft and vandalism of artifacts, help preserve cultural property when occupying foreign territory, and avoid the targeting and use of cultural sites for military purposes.”

Though not party to the 1954 Hague Convention until 2008, the US has incorporated themes of cultural heritage preservation and cultural property interests in military training and rules of engagement since the time of the original drafting of the Convention following WWII. Conference presenter W. Hays Parks, Senior Associate Deputy General Counsel, International Affairs, DoD stated that, “the US has been engaged in these efforts prior to ratification”. He also noted that “respect for cultural property is a Command responsibility” and it is from the Command level that cultural heritage safeguarding initiatives have been derived since post WWII. Conference presenter Richard Jackson, Special Assistant to the Army Judge Advocate General for Law of War Matters, further noted that many counterinsurgency operations (COIN) that have been in use for some time facilitate cultural heritage awareness. Wegener’s presentation underscored this by pointing out that since 2006, more than 1000 civil affairs military personnel individuals have been trained in cultural property awareness before their deployment.

Many substantive remarks and presentations were made throughout the course of the conference. W. Hays Parks reiterated the importance of influencing the Command structure with regard to cultural property training, specifically noting that cultural heritage intelligence relies on Command awareness, collection and dissemination of information and map making. Richard Jackson noted that stability operations (which include cultural heritage awareness) are no longer an afterthought of wartime. He said that doctrinal changes have been made to further enhance “an integrated military response”. Karl Habsburg, President of the Association of the National Committees of the Blue Shield, noted that the addition of Cultural Property Protection Officers among the service personnel within the Austrian Armed Forces has been an extraordinary success. Patty Gerstenblith, President of the LCCHP, noted that more needs to be done in peacetime; the focus of cultural heritage preservation as it relates to armed conflict need not be only during wartime.

To conclude, Patty Gerstenblith posed the following questions: How has this ratification of the 1954 Hague Convention affected the work of those in the governmental agencies and the NGOs whose work deals with cultural property protection? Are we, in fact, currently in compliance with the Convention? Are we doing all we can towards compliance? What can we do better? What questions can we expect to be posed in the future regarding cultural heritage during armed conflict?

W. Hays Parks may have summed it up best when he said, “We’ve been [working toward cultural property preservation awareness] all along, but now we need to do it better”.