Moderator - please note the inaccuracy that SUNANDA K. DATTA-RAY perpetuates in his/her (sorry, not sure) last posting about the Iraqi Museum having lost all of its records (see the attached
email sent to all Smithsonian employees on 4/23/03
):
The following is an update from the State Department staff supporting ORHA (Office for Reconstructions and Humanitarian Assistance) staff. Ambassador Limbert is a member of ORHA responsible for cultural affairs:
1) Ambassador Limbert has reached Baghdad and the National Museum of Iraq. He spoke to the museum staff -- all of whom are safe.
2) Museum officials told Ambassador Limbert that they have good records of holdings -- rumor that these records were destroyed is not true.
3) Despite the loss of many valuable pieces, a good many smaller, valuable pieces had been put in storage for safe keeping and may still be at the Museum. The officials asked the US military to provide lighting in basement storage areas so that an inventory can be done.
4) Many stolen objects have been returned to the Museum via local mosques at the urging of religious leaders.
5) Islamic collection appears not to be badly affected -- the most valuable manuscripts were successfully placed in safe keeping.
6) Museum officials told Ambassador Limbert that what they will most need in the way of assistance will be: a) people to help with restoration b) financial or in-kind assistance to replace lost equipment (e.g., cameras, security system, computers.
I'll pass on additional information as it becomes available.
Thomas Lentz, Director International Art Museums Division 202-357-7047
Next mission? Operation Iraqi Heritage
SUNANDA K. DATTA-RAY FOR THE STRAITS TIMES
THE vandalism in Baghdad took me back to an auction at Christie's in London where the champagne flowed as people bid for gifts from the glitterati to raise funds for the august London Library. Amid urgings and applause, poet Stephen Spender laughingly draped about his shoulders a magnificent quilted mandarin robe in deep blue satin that was Graham Greene's contribution to the sale.
The robe had been looted from the Summer Palace in Beijing in October 1860.
An eyewitness wrote that when he entered the emperor's throne room, he found 'the floor covered with the choicest curios' and the French General de Montauban piling up treasures for Napoleon III and Queen Victoria. Lord Elgin then had the Summer Palace burned down. Fifty- nine years earlier, his father had removed 51 Greek panels from the Parthenon in Athens. No wonder Britain, which is also home to monumental Assyrian sculptures from Nineveh and Calah (in Iraq), has not signed the 1953 Hague Convention which obliges belligerent powers to protect cultural heritage in war zones. Neither has the United States which is now the centre of the global trade - legal and illegal - in antiquities. Reporters noted that while American troops jealously guarded Iraq's oil installations and records, they made no attempt to stop the vandalism.
Perhaps not all 170,000 exhibits in Baghdad's National Museum were plundered. But the looting was anything but haphazard. The old Iraqi bent double under a huge French vase or the younger man making off with a washbasin shown on TV were innocents. Even the American journalist and soldiers caught with stolen mementoes were not the big-time criminals who service billionaire collectors. Professor Gil J. Stein, a professor of archaeology at Chicago University, which has been conducting digs in Iraq for 80 years, thinks that international antique dealers ordered the most important items - Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian relics of the ancient civilisations of the Tigris and Euphrates valleys - well in advance. 'They were looking for very specific artefacts,' he says. Professionally armed with glass-cutters and equipment to lift heavy objects, the thieves knew where to look. They had keys to the safes and vaults where some exhibits were stored after the 1991 Gulf War. Having taken what they wanted, they destroyed the museum's card catalogue and computer records. The stolen goods may already have been absorbed into underworld rings with suspected links with drug trafficking. According to Mr Donny George, the museum's research director, they ignored reproductions. Their booty included a life- sized royal statue dated 2430 BC, a Sumerian lyre from 2400 BC, a 5,000-year-old golden vessel from Ur and Ottoman records.
While American, European and Japanese art collectors may be gleefully rubbing their hands, Mr Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), wants the UN to take steps to ensure the return of stolen items, set up a 'heritage police' to guard cultural sites and institutions, oblige governments to ban Iraqi art imports, and forbid museums and art dealers to trade in such goods. His plan may seem like locking the stable door after the horse has escaped, especially since Iraqi antiquities have flooded the market since 1991. Some were looted from museums; others from 10,000-year-old sites that were attacked with bulldozers. Mr Matsuura also faces opposition from the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP) which criticises as 'retentionist' the laws of countries that try to save their treasures. It lobbies against the Cultural Property Implementation Act, which attempts to stop the flow of stolen goods into the US. A leading ACCP member, Professor John Merryman of Stanford Law School, writes: 'The existence of a market preserves cultural objects that might otherwise be destroyed or neglected by providing them with a market value. In an open, legitimate trade, cultural objects can move to the people and institutions that value them most and are therefore most likely to care for them.'
In short, price is the only value.
If the US is serious about Operation Iraqi Heritage, it must support Unesco's initiative. These artefacts robbed from the cradle of civilisation do not only define a nation's soul, they are also the heritage of man. The writer is a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University's School of Communication and Information.
http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/
Marines accuse Baghdad museum of hampering hunt for treasures
Search for exhibits held up by lack of help, taskforce says
Ewen MacAskill in Baghdad Tuesday May 6, 2003 The Guardian
The search for the antiquities of ancient Mesopotamia looted as the US forces were occupying Baghdad is being hampered by strained relations between the US marine corps and officials of the Iraqi National Museum. The marines, who have been given responsibility for finding the missing treasures, say the staff are not cooperating.
Colonel Matthew Bogdanus, who commands the taskforce conducting the search, said the officals had yet to provide an inventory of the museum's possessions. Without that it was impossible to establish how much had been stolen. Baghdad is awash with people offering antiquities, real and fake, to foreigners. In the markets, at street corners and roundabouts, statues and seals said to be more than 5,000 years old are on offer. The market in fakes is sophisticated and many of them carry the markings of the Iraqi National Museum. More than 600 pieces from the musem have been recovered of the thousands estimated to have been stolen. Museums around the world say it is the most catastrophic theft of antiquities since the second world war. Art specialists, curators and law officers gathered at Interpol headquarters in France yesterday to begin establishing a database of the looted antiquities. They include representatives of the International Council of Museums and the UN heritage agency Unesco, and the US attorney general, John Ashcroft.
Col Bogdanus, deputy director of the US central command special staff set up after September 11 to coordinate the work of the US armed forces and law enforcement agencies, said border guards, international police agencies and auction houses around the world had been notified.
But they needed details and pictures which were not yet available.
He had an inventory but he stressed that it had not been provided by the museum staff: it was thought Germany may have made it available. Not only had the museum failed to provide him with its inventory, it had not let him into the vaults where some of the most valuable antiquities were kept. "Before the war many items were removed from the museums and put in underground vaults in the Central Bank of Iraq. The vaults appear to be intact but no one has been able to tell us which vaults they are in, provide us with access, keys or combinations," he said. Asked if he was accusing the Iraqis of obstruction, he said: "I offer only facts, not opinons. You can draw your own conclusions." Dr Nawal al-Mutawazy, the museum's director, rejected the implication. "The Americans have asked for all the inventory of Iraq's museums and we did not supply them with it because most of the papers were scattered round the floor," she said.
Asked about access to the vaults, she replied: "Who says there are vaults?"
But Dr Jabel Khalil, chairman of the state board of antiquities, confirmed that there were vaults. "We can't answer the question of what has been lost until we investigate what we have, and that will take lots of time, because some of the looting was from halls and some from vaults." Col Bogdanus has offered an amnesty to anyone returning stolen goods. "No questions asked means no questions asked," he said. About 200 pieces have been returned under this offer, and 465 pieces were seized by the US-backed Free Iraqi Forces last weekend at Kut in central Iraq. But the recovery has dried up in the past week. Even before the looting there was an extensive trade in antiquities, spurred by the chaos after the 1991 Gulf war and poverty caused by international sanctions. Thousands of pieces were taken from sites or museums. The recovery is complicated by the sophistication of the fakes on offer, exemplified by the 25 items which a former Iraqi army captain tried to sell to the Guardian, claiming they were looted from the museum.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/
Interpol international conference on stolen Iraqi art
5 May 2003, Lyon, France
Speech by Mr Mounir Bouchenaki, Assistant Director-General for Culture, UNESCO
Mr Chairman, Excellencies, Ladies and Gentleman,
It is a great honour for me to represent here the Director General of UNESCO, he asked me to convey to this meeting his greetings and his hope that we will really push you, the work that has been started since the disastrous looting of the Iraqi National Museum, and other museums as well. First of all I would like to thank Mr Deridder, the Executive Director of Interpol for inviting UNESCO to participate in this meeting and I would like to thank also his two colleagues who are very well known to UNESCO, Mr Kind and Mr Jouanny, because we are working with them since many years in the framework of the convention of 1970, and for example this handbook on the implementation of the 1970 convention was done in very close relation with Interpol. I would like also to remind the participants who are not familiar with the relationship between UNESCO and Interpol, that there is an agreement between these two institutions particularly on the subject that we are going to discuss today.
May I just quickly remind the story. I mean how this question of cultural heritage of Iraq was tackled by UNESCO since the beginning of the war in Iraq. First of all UNESCO used the experience of what has happened after the first Gulf War and the looting that happened in the regional museums in the North and in the South of Iraq. And we felt that this is a situation that may happen in Iraq also during this time, and therefore we already wrote to Interpol to ICOM, to the International Association of Art Dealers, explaining that there may be some chaotic situation which will allow for looting like it happened during the last war. And unfortunately, I mean we were not looking very much toward the future, but we were sure that in a situation of war there is always this kind of situation. And that's why when we saw on the television screens and through the news agencies that the looting started, first of all in some ministries and some public institutions, we were really afraid of what would happen to the Iraqi National Museum and we have seen as all of you, how this museum was looted. This was really considered as a catastrophe by all institutions and all museums in the world, and in UNESCO we received a large number of appeals saying UNESCO should do something about this looting. And therefore the Director-General Mr Matsuura decided to convene a meeting on the 17 April. You remember that the looting was happening on the 7 and 8 of April. So at just a very short notice we invited the most prominent scholars of the world who have worked in Iraq, who have experience in archaeology, mainly the chief of archaeological missions and some leading experts like the Director of the British Museum and the Director of the German Museum, to gather in Paris at UNESCO Headquarters on the 17 April and to have a kind of first assessment of the situation. We also invited some Iraqi scholars, very well known Iraqi scholars, from New York University, Columbia University, London University but also we tried, but we didn't succeed, to invite Professor Donigeorge who is the Iraqi Director of Archaeological research in the Department of Antiquities of Iraq. Our colleagues of the British Museum were more successful, ten days later, to bring Professor Donigeorge to London. This first meeting on the 17 April and this gathering was aimed at first make a first assessment through the knowledge received by the scholars, by their contacts with their partners in Iraq, by the main researchers and the aim was first to have this assessment and to make some kind of co-ordination of scientific networks for the cultural heritage of Iraq. The second aim was to formulate some strategic recommendations on this date in the era of the post-conflict situation in the view of rehabilitating the cultural heritage of Iraq. Third, to establish the first plan of action determining the immediate action, the medium term and the long term, for the cultural heritage of Iraq. So this was the first action taken and immediately during this period we were in contact with the State Department, Mr Matsuura wrote to Mr Colin Powell and we were pleased to receive in Paris on exactly the same date Mrs Bonnie Gardiner who I see here and I would like to really congratulate her because she came immediately and we had very useful meetings on that day, on the 16 and 17 April. This meeting was able to give a clearer idea of what has happened and the main issue was the looting, and the main issue was how to take immediate measures to stop the objects getting out of Iraq. So my first action was of course to contact Interpol and I spoke to Mr Jouanny and we wrote a letter to your office and we also wrote a letter to all the surrounding countries, to the Minister of Culture because these are my partners, to the Ministers of Culture of the surrounding countries asking them to reinforce, through the Ministry of Interior, the search by the police and the customs at the borders. In addition of course we contacted again ICOM, the General Secretary of ICOM, Mr Brinkman, and also the International Association of Art Dealers, and we thought that there should be immediately some kind of preparation of a database. If we have knowledge about the objects missing, in order to stop, eventually, their arrival into the market. This was really the first action, the first immediate action taken on the 17 April after this meeting. Then we continued to be in contact with several institutions and in particular with the British Museum. In relation with Mr Neil MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum, we thought that another meeting should be useful, directed particularly toward the directors of museums. What we did in Paris was more a meeting open to all specialities - antiquities, Islamic period, archaeology, museology - all aspects were covered by this first meeting.
The meeting of London, organized by Neil MacGregor in co-operation with UNESCO on the 29 April, that means last week, was directed mainly towards the leading museums in the world, the major museums having collections of Iraqi cultural heritage. And there also I was of course present at this meeting, representing the Director-General of UNESCO, I made a statement on behalf of the Director-General of UNESCO, the statement of the Director-General of UNESCO was mainly a statement about the objects stolen and how to tackle this very important question of the objects stolen. The main characteristics of the meeting of London at the British Museum, was the fact that we had, for the first time since the end of the war, we had two presentations by colleagues who have been to Baghdad just a few days before the meeting. One from Professor Donigeorge, who explained to us, he is Iraqi, he was in the Museum, he was following all this period of uncertainty and also the unfortunate period of looting. So this was the first presentation at the British Museum, and the second one was the presentation by Mr John Curtis, the Curator of the Near Eastern Department, of the British Museum. This is the plus, if we compare it with the meeting of Paris. So the meeting of London was a meeting where we had finally more information and more technical details than what we had, all of us, through the media, through the television channels, who were reporting very well, like CNN, like BBC, the RAI. I mean, I saw personally these three channels and there were quite a lot of information you can take from the image which were shown on the screen. The two exposés by Professor Donigeorge and by John Curtis were concentrating of course on what has happened in the museum of Baghdad. Until now we don't have these technical data, informations about Mosul, in the museum of Mosul, or in other museums. And also, I am personally an archaeologist by training so I am very much concerned by what would have happened also in the archaeological sites. You know we have got some experience in UNESCO with the Afghan cultural heritage, and we have seen that even a long time after the end of the Taliban's regime, the looting and the illicit excavations continued in Afghanistan. And we have reports, particularly one report made by one of our Italian colleagues when he visited the minaret of Jaan after inscription of this minaret on the World Heritage List, we received a report showing that the whole hill behind the minaret of Jaan was like a, in French we say un gruyère, you know like this cheese with holes, and this was the result of illicit excavation going on at a very large scale. So our other concern is that, of course we should concentrate, and we are going to concentrate on what has happened in the Iraqi Museum in Baghdad, in the Mosul Museum, but also we should be also careful about what is probably happening in the archaeological sites of Iraq like Hatra, like Ur, Assur, etc.
Coming back to this meeting of London, I would like say that this first part of the meeting was very useful because we had presentation of exactly what kind of looters were going into this museum. You have seen probably all the various reports and it seems that there are two kinds of looters. There are the looters that we can consider people going in the streets, seeing no authority, and saying "it's good if we can take something" like they did in some Ministries, taking a chair or lamp or a computer. And this is probably one aspect of the looting. The other aspect, and now it's quite sure, is done by people who knew what they were taking because Mr Donigeorge reported to us that there were some casts of the Stella of hamorabae casts of objects in the gallery of the museum. These casts were not taken. Were taken only objects, precious objects, and we have pictures of, for example, the Vase of Uruk. And we are all afraid because this is a fragile object, but it is a very original and very precious object. Then we had a very interesting discussion between the various directors of museums and experts in the field of museums and also in the presence of ICOM, in the presence of the representative of the Art Loss Register, and some members of the parliament present in this meeting. We all considered that it was absolutely useful now to start establishing a database. This is now becoming very important and the good news in this bad news is that the inventory of this museum was not burnt. It was confirmed by Mr Donigeorge, we were all afraid what happened to the inventory. Has the inventory disappeared? Has the inventory been, you know, scattered around, like we saw in the pictures, you know, all these fiches around on the floor. No. The inventory is there. Of course, the method now is to see through the various publications, scientific publications, of the archaeological missions, through the data which are still preserved in the museum, what is left and what is missing. So for example, our two colleagues who were in Baghdad, were not able to tell us what about the situation of the objects in the stores. They didn't have access because of electricity cut, they didn't have access into the store. Another very important question which was raised in Paris by some experts was about treasures which were put in the vaults of the Central Bank. What happens to these objects, we are not sure about the situation of these objects. Everybody knows that the Central Bank was attacked, that looters took money, but were they able to go into the vaults, were they able to take out from the vaults the collections that were put, since the first Gulf War, they were put in the safe at that time. So these are the informations that we were able to receive and to take into account and I think it is very important that the establishment of a database is really now constituting an important step.
The third phase in this very short time was the meeting I had in Paris with Mr Jouanny from Interpol, during which we discussed how to tackle this question of the database, and in which way we can really be efficient in working with the various institutions and bringing the information to Interpol. Here I want to tell you that I discussed with the Ambassador of Switzerland to UNESCO, Mr Feldmeyer, and he immediately reacted to my proposal that this is a very urgent matter: establishing the inventory, putting in place a database, organizing the relations with all the institutions which have the inventories, which have files, and trying to co-ordinate with Interpol, the transmission of the information. I am pleased to inform you that the Swiss Government has already allocated 250,000 Swiss francs for this particular operation. So this is, I think, a very good support that we were expecting if we have to go ahead. And in fact we have to go ahead, because one of the recommendations of the meeting in London was to ask UNESCO to co- ordinate between all the institutions the work of establishing a proper database. So these are the various stages of what we have been able to prepare since the beginning of the war in Iraq. Let me turn Mr President, to French, of you'll allow me,…
Je voudrais, Monsieur le Président, dire que cette réunion nous la considérons, à l'UNESCO, comme fondamentale parce qu'elle va permettre de définir maintenant de façon encore plus pratique quelles sont les actions que nos deux institutions en relation avec toutes les institutions qui sont spécialisées, qui sont nos partenaires habituels dans le domaine de la lutte contre le trafic illicite des œuvres d'art comment nous allons mettre en place maintenant le système d'inventaire et le moyen de récupérer les objets. Une des actions au plan politique que le Directeur général de l'UNESCO a lancé déjà, depuis quelques jours c'est de demander à Monsieur KOFI ANAN, le Secrétaire Général des Nations Unies, d'inscrire un point à l'ordre du jour du Conseil de sécurité de façon à ce qu'une résolution soit prise au niveau international par tous les Etats pour bloquer, pour empêcher l'importation d'objets en provenance d'Iraq. Vous savez tous que la Convention de 1970 est ratifiée par 97 Etats partie. Alors bien sûr, et c'était l'une des discussions que nous avons eu avec Madame Bonnie Magness-Gardiner il y a quelques jours les Etats-Unis sont parties de la Convention de 1970, la Grande-Bretagne est Etat partie de la Convention de 1970, la France est Etat partie de la Convention de 1970, mais il y a beaucoup de pays qui ne sont pas Etat partie de la Convention de 1970 et c'est la raison pour laquelle nous avons pensé que même si c'est pour une période temporaire, une décision qui est prise à l'échelon de tous les Etats, même ceux qui ne sont pas signataires de la Convention de 1970, permettrait de lutter plus efficacement contre l'importation d'objets en provenance d'Iraq. Donc ça c'est sur le plan politique.
Sur le plan technique maintenant, nous avons proposé aux autorités américaines et aux autorités anglaises, de constituer très rapidement une mission pluridisciplinaire qui puisse se rendre en Iraq et qui puisse faire un premier inventaire, un premier état des lieux pour le musée bien sûr de Bagdad, mais aussi pour d'autres sites de façon à pouvoir préparer un plan d'action pour la réhabilitation du patrimoine iraquien. J'ai eu la chance d'en parler directement le 29 avril avec le Professeur Denis GEORGES qui a accueilli cette idée avec beaucoup d'enthousiasme qu'il a dit pendant sa conférence de presse et là nous sommes en train de discuter les derniers aspects logistiques qui nous permettraient de nous rendre en Iraq, le Directeur général m'a chargé d'ailleurs de conduire cette mission pluridisciplinaire qui comprendra des archéologues, des architectes, des muséologues, de façon à couvrir tous les champs concernant le patrimoine Iraquien. Aujourd'hui, notre réunion devrait donc se concentrer sur ce que nous savons, c'est-à- dire sur les informations reçues à ce jour concernant le musée de Bagdad, concernant le musée de Mosul mais nous n'avons pas plus de détails. Cette réunion devrait nous permettre de renforcer la coopération internationale, je vois ici beaucoup de personnes que je connais, avec lesquelles nous avons déjà travaillé. Donc premièrement renforcer la coopération internationale et la coopération avec la police. Si la presse est déjà la presse en a parler, j'ai été interviewé hier soir par la BBC, ce matin j'ai écouté une radio parisienne qui parlait de cette réunion, si la presse sait qu'il y a un effort qui se fait à l'échelon international, je pense que c'est déjà une première étape qui va freiner les trafiquants qui seront que malgré tous il y a maintenant une action qui est prise à l'échelon international et qu'il y a une coopération entre les différentes institutions. Deuxièmement, il faut pour pouvoir certifier que les objets sont volés, s'assurer qu'ils sont effectivement venus des dépôts et des galeries du musée, alors nous avons été assurés jusqu'à maintenant par Monsieur Denis GEORGES que tous les objets avaient un numéro d'inventaire et qu'ils étaient enregistrés dans leur catalogue général du musée. Nous avons même eu des personnes privées en France qui nous ont écrit en disant : " Nous avons acheté un catalogue du musée de Bagdad, nous le mettons à votre disposition ". C'est une action qui montre que toute la sensibilisation que nous avons faite depuis quelques semaines est en train de porter ses fruits et il y a vraiment des volontés même de personnes privées pour essayer de lutter contre ce vol d'objets. Nous devons donc assurer maintenant que les données soient rassemblées, collectées, selon un format qui doit être élaboré ici, puisqu'il doit être compatible et capable d'être passé avec facilité à la base de données d'Interpol. Pour cela nous pensons que le système d'Interpol qui existe déjà, qui est fait sur la base du idea object, nous devons le maintenir et nous devrons travailler dans le cadre de ce système. Mais il faut aussi se poser la question ici et voir de quelles manières protéger l'information, car il ne s'agit pas de mettre cette information sur le site et la distribuer sans une surveillance et une manière de contrôler ces informations et savoir vers quels destinataires elles vont être envoyées. Enfin, assurer le suivi de cette opération, ça veux dire organiser de temps à autre des rencontres qui nous permettrons de savoir où est-ce qu'on en est et qu'elles sont les résultats déjà obtenus. Je dois dire que selon deux ambassadeurs que j'ai rencontrés la semaine dernière à Paris, l'ambassadrice de Jordanie auprès de l'UNESCO et l'ambassadeur de Turquie auprès de l'UNESCO. L'ambassadrice de Jordanie m'a dit que des instructions très fermes avaient été données à la police aux frontières en Jordanie et que déjà certains objets ont été récupérés. Donc cela veut dire que quelque part le système commence à fonctionner et que la police jordanienne est en train de faire un travail de recherche dans les bagages qui sortent de l'Iraq. Pour la Turquie, j'ai obtenu l'assurance, il y a trois jours de l'ambassadeur de Turquie qui m'a rapporté une réponse du ministre de la Culture à qui j'avais écrit le 17 avril, me disant que des instructions avaient été données effectivement aux postes frontières avec l'Iraq en Turquie et que des recherches allaient être suivies et entreprises. Donc il va falloir assurer un suivi de toutes ces opérations et voir quels sont les résultats que nous allons obtenir de cette manière. J'ai pu voir comme vous tous que les autorités américaines avaient saisi aussi aux frontières à l'arrivée à Washington et à Boston, bon il ne s'agissait pas d'objets archéologiques, il s'agissait de peintures d'objets contemporains qui avaient été pris dans les palais de Sadam HUSSEIN mais c'est déjà aussi un exemple de résultat qui montre que les instructions ont été données aux polices et aux services des douanes pour empêcher l'importation de ces objets d'arts. Voilà Monsieur le Président ce que je voulais dire en guise d'introduction à votre séminaire, je crois que ce séminaire s'inscrit dans la vision que l'ensemble de la communauté internationale a actuellement pris en compte ; dans le train une de mes collègues archéologues qui est italienne et qui a travaillé en Iraq m'a remis cette revue qui s'appelle " Archéo Iraq " (texte arabe : la civilisation qui part en morceau) et je voudrais vous lire juste un paragraphe qui montre bien l'importance et l'intérêt de ce travail que nous tous nous devons faire : je le lis rapidement en Italien : La guerre qui vient de se terminer, a eu des effets désastreux pour le patrimoine archéologique de ce pays et aussi pour un des musées les plus importants du monde aujourd'hui endommagé pour les sites archéologiques connus et les sites non connus. A tout cela s'ajoutent les milliers d'œuvres qui ont été volées et qui sont destinées au marché clandestin international. Il est vrai aujourd'hui nous sommes tous plus pauvres parce que nous avons été privés de notre histoire et de notre mémoire.
Merci Monsieur le Président.
http://www.interpol.int/ INTERPOL Meeting on Cultural Property Looting in Iraq 6 May 2003, Lyon, France
Speech by Ronald K. Noble, Secretary General of the ICPO-Interpol
Thank you, Mr. Attorney General.
Most of you have been here for two days and have heard several references to the important work of Interpol. Few of you outside the police community probably know exactly what we do and how we do it.
The International Criminal Police Organization's, Interpol's, core mission is the deceptively simple sounding task of providing the widest possible assistance among criminal police authorities around the world. No constitution binds us. What we do, we do on a voluntary basis. We have a system that uses "Notices" originally issued in paper format, but now issued in both paper and electronic format. These notices are sent and received by our National Central Bureaus (NCBs)- our lifeblood if you will. These Notices alert Member Countries, for example, about fugitives; about missing persons; about people whom the police are investigating. When a country receives an Interpol notice, it is free to act on Interpol's request from another Member Country to arrest that person or to not act on the request. This system of voluntary cooperation permits us to remain a diverse but highly functional organization. A related function for our NCBs is to send requests and offers of assistance on police matters. Some 10,000 messages pass through our NCBs each month. This permits great cooperation on significant international crime. Besides alerting Member Countries about dangerous people or crimes, we develop specialized projects in drugs, terrorism, and sexual exploitation of children over the Internet. Our goals always focus on fostering international police cooperation while respecting the rule of law and human rights. These ideals, which have existed since the founding of the Organization more than 80 years ago, are enormously difficult to achieve in practice. We have 181 member countries. Our Member Countries' police officers speak hundreds of different languages, though Interpol has 4 official languages (Arab, English, French and Spanish). We come from different cultures; we are trained in different legal systems; and we follow different police procedures. Even though we share a common profession, this degree of diversity can put serious obstacles in the way of the co-operation that we are supposed to foster.
Despite these impediments, Interpol succeeds time after time in achieving its goal. When the 11 September attacks occurred, we issued the first international notices on some of the leading figures in that attack at the request of the US, Egypt, Germany, the UK, Spain and Italy. Similarly, our working group meeting this week is a remarkable example of the ability of police services, professional experts and private concerns from around the world to set aside small concerns and to respond quickly to a crisis. You, the participants in this conference, are responding to the call to restore a nation's treasured heritage. That ranks as a worthy objective. It is astounding to recall that we first heard reports of the looting of cultural treasures in Baghdad only three short weeks ago. In that brief time, Interpol reacted quickly by sending personnel to assess the situation in Iraq, by making resources available on our Internet website, and by setting up this multidisciplinary conference. The aim of this week's meeting is to define a comprehensive international strategy for identifying cultural treasures looted from Baghdad and returning them to their rightful homes. Since 1947 Interpol has been working in the area of the recovery of stolen works of Art and Antiquities. Since the 70's we have published "Interpol's Most Wanted Works of Art" twice a year. And, we have had a surprisingly high success rate. Over the last 30 years we have recovered about 2 items per publication. We have recovered priceless works of art from Romania over 30 years from the time those thefts were publicized on our flyer. It is important that traders in stolen works of art or antiquity never be able to sleep comfortably thinking that Interpol has forgotten. Interpol never forgets, and Interpol will devote whatever time it takes to help recover stolen works of art and antiquity. We currently have a database of 20,000 items. Although we have experts here in this area, one must remember that few police forces around the world have experts in this field; so our database must be very user friendly. Interpol has learned lessons about stolen works of art that are worth remembering today. I will touch upon a few of them now.
First, the quality of the police's effort to recover stolen works depends in large part on the quality of the information that we have about the cultural property in question. For example, following the first Gulf war, Interpol received inconsistent, incomplete and often inaccurate information about the cultural property allegedly stolen then. Iraq had no pictures to provide us, and despite a constant effort at improving the quality of information, we were able to enter only 1 reportedly stolen item in our database. It was a stone head of a woman, and it was recovered 2 years ago in the UK. This working group must come up with a process for ensuring the accurate collection, storage and reporting of data concerning the looted property in Iraq. Right now we are operating on rumors and anecdotal stories. Interpol supports the roles of UNESCO and the International Council of Museums in helping to develop a database of what was supposed to be in Iraq; what actually was in the museums, libraries and archaeological sites and what is there now. Second, Interpol's experience has been that stolen works of art and antiquity are generally recovered in the country from which they were stolen. This might sound counter-intuitive, but this has been our experience. So far, many of you gathered here today who are considered experts in this field believe that the same might be true with the reportedly looted cultural property from Iraq.
Third, Interpol deals most frequently with the National Central Bureaus of Interpol Member Countries. They are our mechanism for receiving and sending information. Unfortunately, in Iraq, there currently is no Interpol National Central Bureau. There is no national police force. Unless immediate steps are taken to re-create such a bureau, we will lose valuable opportunities for sharing of important information. Italy has offered to host a police operational meeting in this regard in Rome and since Interpol is being asked lead this effort in the area of international police cooperation, and I have invited the former Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police (Mick Palmer) to attend this working group in order to give us his guidance on this important issue. Fourth, in working through the problem of recovering looted cultural property from Iraq, we should rely on experts from diverse backgrounds such as those gathered here today. Interpol has a contribution to make, and we will make a contribution. We have two of the world's foremost police experts in this area right here at Interpol Headquarters. Mr. Jean-Pierre Jouanny from the French National Police Force and Mr. Karl Heinz Kind from Germany's BKA. The commitment of these two individuals is so great that Mr. Jouanny came out of retirement to help us with our effort to recover looted Iraqi cultural property. Interpol plans to produce a special Most Wanted Works of Art Flyer for Looted Iraqi Cultural Property. We also plan to ask our National Central Bureaus and our Member Country police forces to designate police officers to form a Special International Task Force based in the Iraqi region. We will generate a Project Plan and give countries of the world an opportunity to contribute to a special fund designed to help police recover looted cultural property from Iraq and to help re-establish and connect to our global communication system, a new Interpol National Central Bureau in Iraq.
Finally, I close with a point that I know the Attorney General and all the experts in dealing with crises know. It is very common for the first information following a crisis to be wrong, and when I say wrong, I mean wrong. So, let us all try to be responsible in how we speak about this issue until we know the facts, and let us dedicate ourselves to gathering the facts as expeditiously and efficiently as possible.
http://www.interpol.int/ INTERPOL Meeting on Cultural Property Looting in Iraq 6 May 2003, Lyon, France
Prepared remarks of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft
Note: The Attorney General often deviates from prepared remarks
Thank you, Ron, for that generous introduction. Interpol was already a top-flight law enforcement organization, but your dynamic leadership has brought new dimensions to this global crime- fighting resource.
I was pleased to have an opportunity to tour this wonderful facility this morning. Information is the best friend of preventing crime and preventing crime is the most important work which we can do. Thank you for the invitation to join you here in Lyon. The Working Group on Theft of Cultural Property in Iraq will play a critical role in the months ahead in international efforts to return to the people of Iraq their national treasures. All of us understand the importance of these cultural treasures to the Iraqi people. Thank you, also, to those of you here from the private sector. We appreciate your cooperation and assistance in helping to return Iraq's heritage. It is a pleasure for me to be here. Interpol fosters mutual assistance among all police authorities. It is a platform for raising awareness and identifying best practices of law enforcement worldwide. Interpol is a forum for exchanging information on current criminal trends and investigations. This is especially important for trans-national crimes, or those that occur in the virtual world of the Internet: crimes such as child pornography and the trafficking of human beings. You have been on the forefront of successfully fighting both. Let me take this opportunity, also, to express on behalf of the people of the United States, our profound appreciation for the work Interpol and its members have undertaken in the international war against terrorism.
I want to commend the Secretary General and Interpol for the presentation at the G8 yesterday. While I would not want to speak for all Justice Ministers, it seemed to me that there was deep respect for and a high degree of concensus on the work being done so well by Interpol. The attacks of September 11, 2001, were focused on the United States of America. But we know that terrorists launched their attacks on the entire civilized world that day. Interpol's 181 member nations rightly saw the terrorist attacks for what they were and came to the defense of law and liberty. The world changed that day. The way we fight terrorism changed that day. National, regional and local law enforcement agencies are cooperating, communicating and coordinating as never before. Our new approaches are based on the shared belief that in order for a nation to prevent international terrorism inside its borders, it must work with its allies to defeat terrorism outside its borders. Interpol's Fusion Task Force is a model for how national, regional and local law enforcement and intelligence organizations can share information to detect, disrupt and dismantle trans-national organized crime and terrorist organizations. You are helping us win the war against terrorism, and I salute the Fusion Task Force here. Just as the United States depended on the alliance with Interpol in our time of need two years ago, I turn to your membership for assistance in another area of Interpol expertise: the reclamation of historic and cultural treasures looted from museums and government facilities in Iraq.
Since 1947, Interpol has been particularly involved in fighting the illicit trade in cultural objects. Simple international notices of stolen art have evolved into a highly efficient and detailed database system that circulates information to all Interpol member countries around the globe. In response to reports in Iraq of looting in museums, Interpol quickly communicated with law enforcement agencies globally to be on the look-out for stolen Iraqi artifacts and valuable pieces of art. The experience Interpol brings in database and communications management is a critical tool in our efforts to track and return artifacts. It will also help to create a world wide communications network for law enforcement and antiquities experts. Already, the United States has taken steps in Iraq to recover what was stolen, and to account for what was sadly destroyed. Ambassador John Limbert, a senior advisor in the Office of Reconstruction and Humanitarian Affairs, is taking the lead in these crucial efforts. Soon after hearing reports of the thefts that took place at the National Museum of Antiquities, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and U.S. Customs Service began to act:
They established an interagency law-enforcement working group to coordinate the U.S. response.
The FBI and U.S. Customs sent notices to their international attachés abroad, tasking them to focus on this issue and to ensure that liaisons were established with their foreign counterparts to elevate the capacity of our law enforcement agencies to intercept these cultural artifacts. The FBI Legal Attaché in Paris met with attendees of the April 17th UNESCO conference on the theft of Iraqi artifacts.
The FBI and U.S. Customs attachés met with experts at the recent artifacts conference sponsored by the British Museum.
The FBI contacted museums and antiquities organizations in the U.S. to establish awareness of the theft investigations.
U.S. Customs agents already in Iraq have been reassigned to investigations at the Baghdad museum site. An FBI team that includes investigators with experience in antiquities will follow up that work. From the evidence that has emerged, there is a strong case to be made that the looting and theft of the artifacts was perpetrated by organized criminal groups - criminals who knew precisely what they were looking for.
Although the criminals who committed the thefts may have transported the objects beyond Iraq's borders, they should know that they have not escaped the reach of justice for the pursuit of those responsible will be enhanced by the cooperative work of all of those in this room. Regardless of how sophisticated these criminals are, or how hard they work to avoid detection, United States law enforcement and our colleagues at Interpol will not rest until the stolen Iraqi artifacts are returned to their rightful place - the public museums and libraries of Iraq. The international coalition of Operation Iraqi Freedom fought to give citizens of that nation lives of liberty - free of tyranny and terror. The coalition fought to give the Iraqi people back their heritage, not to have it snatched away in fits of retribution or greed. The looted treasures and artifacts are touchstones of an artistic and intellectual tradition stretching back to the earliest recorded years of history. Iraq is the cradle of civilization. It is where Eden bloomed, and great empires thrived. It is the birthplace of much religious history and written law.
Yet the operation under way to recover lost cultural, religious and historical artifacts is about more than taking back fragments of time and place. It is about more than restoring the past. In a land where a generation of Iraqis did not know truth or beauty, their art and culture can give them some of both. In the place where Hammurabi set down the first written code of law - but where Rule of Law has been woefully absent - the Iraqi people can see justice served as these treasures are returned. For those who have never witnessed it, justice done can reinvigorate hope; it can reinforce the opportunity for change. In a region of unmatched historical heritage, the lands of Babylon and Nineveh will draw tourists, artists, scientists and businesses, all hallmarks of a free and open society. It is our goal to return parts of the Iraqi people's past. In doing so we hope to return pieces of the Iraqi people's future.
The looting of Iraq's heritage is a violation of law. It is an affront to the dignity of the Iraqi people. It is an assault on the values of civilization-an assault on the values we all share. Righting this wrong will be a challenge, but it is a task worthy of Interpol and its mission. I thank you for your efforts, and for the successes you are sure to see in the future.