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Re: [casi] "US plans to loot Iraqi antiquities"




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Dear list,
this aggression is getting worse. Whatever US/UK-media and Bush & Blair may tell us. The inevitable 
has happend. One of the most famous archeological museums in the world has been looted. And surely 
these people know very well to who they can sell the stolen artefacts. Now this aggression is not 
only depriving the Iraqi's from the right to live, their culture is also being stolen. It will be 
replaced by McDonalds and Coca-Cola. How much lower can the US/UK barbarians sink?
We're back in the dark ages of the conquistadores.
Resistance against this fourth Reich is necessary. How do we explain this to our children? What 
kind of world do we leave for them, if all this is possible?
Greetings (from a very sad)
Dirk.
Baghdad archeological museum looted
A Baghdad mob looted Iraq's largest archeological museum amid a breakdown in civil authority 
following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime, an AFP reporter said.

A dozen looters helped themselves in ground floor rooms at the National Museum of Iraq, where 
pottery artefacts and statues were seen broken or overturned, while administrative offices were 
wrecked.

Two men were seen hauling an ancient portal out of the building, and empty wooden crates were 
scattered over the floor.

Upstairs rooms seemed to have been spared for the time being.

Iraq, among the earliest cradles of civilisation and home to the remains of such ancient 
Mesopotamian cities as Babylon, Ur and Nineveh, has one of the richest archaeological heritages in 
the world.

The museum housed a major collection of antiquities, including a 4,000-year-old silver harp from Ur.

International cultural organisations had urged that the archeological heritage of Iraq, one of the 
cradles of civilisation, be spared ahead of the US-led war launched on March 20.

>
> US plans to loot Iraqi antiques
> ================================
> 07.04.2003
> [08:33]
>
> FEARS that Iraq's heritage will face widespread looting
> at the end of the Gulf war have been heightened after a
> group of wealthy art dealers secured a high-level
> meeting with the US administration.
>
> It has emerged that a coalition of antiquities
> collectors and arts lawyers, calling itself the
> American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), met with
> US defence and state department officials prior to the
> start of military action to offer its assistance in
> preserving the country's invaluable archaeological
> collections.
>
> The group is known to consist of a number of
> influential dealers who favour a relaxation of Iraq's
> tight restrictions on the ownership and export of
> antiquities. Its treasurer, William Pearlstein, has
> described Iraq's laws as 'retentionist' and has said he
> would support a post-war government that would make it
> easier to have antiquities dispersed to the US.
>
> Before the Gulf war, a main strand of the ACCP's
> campaigning has been to persuade its government to
> revise the Cultural Property Implementation Act in
> order to minimise efforts by foreign nations to block
> the import into the US of objects, particularly
> antiques.
>
> News of the group's meeting with the government has
> alarmed scientists and archaeologists who fear the ACCP
> is working to a hidden agenda that will see the US
> authorities ease restrictions on the movement of Iraqi
> artefacts after a coalition victory in Iraq.
>
> Professor Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, leading Cambridge
> archaeologist and director of the McDonald Institute
> for Archaeological Research, said: 'Iraqi antiquities
> legislation protects Iraq. The last thing one needs is
> some group of dealer-connected Americans interfering.
> Any change to those laws would be absolutely monstrous.
> '
>
> A wave of protest has also come from the Archaeological
> Institute of America (AIA), which says any weakening of
> Iraq's strict antiquities laws would be 'disastrous'.
> President Patty Gerstenblith said: 'The ACCP's agenda
> is to encourage the collecting of antiquities through
> weakening the laws of archaeologically-rich nations and
> eliminate national ownership of antiquities to allow
> for easier export. '
>
> The ACCP has caused deep unease among archaeologists
> since its creation in 2001. Among its main members are
> collectors and lawyers with chequered histories in
> collecting valuable artefacts, including alleged
> exhibitions of Nazi loot.
>
> They denied accusations of attempting to change Iraq's
> treatment of archaeological objects. Instead, they said
> at the January meeting they offered 'post-war technical
> and financial assistance', and 'conservation support'.
>
> Liam McDougall/Sunday Herald
>
> Web address     : <http://www.yahoogroups.com/group/portside>
>
> --------- End forwarded message ----------
>
>
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>



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