Cultural heritage in Iraq

ICOM-CC appalled by looting in Iraq.

The International Council of Museums - Committee for Conservation
(ICOM-CC) is witnessing the looting and damage of cultural property
in the aftermath of war in Iraq with the utmost concern.

When ICOM-CC (Feb 25, 2003) and shortly after the International
Committee of the Blue Shield (ICBS) as well as other international
organisations warned about the consequences of war, we stressed our
concern for "... the prospects of possible damage to our shared
cultural heritage and loss of human life as a result of armed
conflicts."

ICOM-CC, with many other international organisations, must now again
stress how significant and crucial The Hague Convention is to all
regimes. It is imperative that all parties in Iraq realise their
responsibilities towards cultural property.

In the "Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the
Event of Armed Conflict", drawn up in The Hague, 14 May 1954, and
entered in force 7 August 1956, Paragraph I. "General provisions
regarding protection", Article 4. "Respect for cultural property"
section 3 reads:

   "The High Contracting Parties further undertake to prohibit,
    prevent and, if necessary, put a stop to any form of theft,
    pillage or misappropriation of, and any acts of vandalism
    directed against, cultural property. They shall refrain from
    requisitioning movable cultural property situated in the
    territory of another High Contracting Party."

ICOM-CC will hold all so-called Coalition Force Partners accountable
for the looting and damage to cultural property in Iraq.

Further paragraph X, "Protocol for the Protection of Cultural
Property in the Event of Armed Conflict", article 1, reads: "The
High Contracting Parties are agreed as follows: 1. Each High
Contracting Party undertakes to prevent the exportation, from a
territory occupied by it during an armed conflict, of cultural
property as defined in Article 1 of the Convention for the
Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict,
signed at The Hague on 14 May, 1954."

Article 3 expands on this role by saying: "Each High Contracting
Party undertakes to return, at the close of hostilities, to the
competent authorities of the territory previously occupied, cultural
property which is in its territory, if such property has been
exported in contravention of the principle laid down in the first
paragraph. Such property shall never be retained as war
reparations."

ICOM-CC urges the so-called Coalition Forces to act according to The
Hague Convention. There simply is no excusable exception for not
following these universal rules of civilised conduct.

ICOM-CC hopes that inventories of the holdings of looted Iraq
museums as soon as possible can be distributed to Interpol and also
widely (via e-lists) to the entire museum world in order to identify
these stolen antiquities in the market for their restitution or
seizure.

On behalf of ICOM - Committee for Conservation (ICOM-CC),

ICOM-CC is the largest of the international committees under the
International Council of Museums (ICOM) with members' world-wide
from every branch of the museum and conservation profession.

ICOM is a non-governmental organisation maintaining formal relations
with UNESCO and having a consultative status with the United
Nations' Economic and Social Council.

    ICOM-CC Secretariat
    13, via San Michele
    00153 Rome
    Italy
    +39 6 58 55 34 10
    Fax: +39 6 58 55 33 49
    secretariat [at] icom__cc__org

Jurgen Wadum
Chair ICOM-CC


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                  Conservation DistList Instance 16:61
                 Distributed: Wednesday, April 16, 2003
                       Message Id: cdl-16-61-010
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