Summit calls for protection of heritage sites | GulfNews.com

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Summit calls for protection of heritage sites

Looting of archaeological sites has reached an unprecedented scale, says UN official

Image Credit: AP

UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova of Bulgaria and Egyptian Antiquities Minister Mamdouh el-Damaty, attend the opening of a conference titled, "Cultural Property Under Threat," in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, May 13, 2015. Bokova said the destruction and looting of archaeological sites in the Middle East must be condemned as a "war crime." The two-day conference is being held in response to the destruction of ancient temples and artifacts in Iraq by the extremist Islamic State group as well as the looting and smuggling of antiquities in Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Libya. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Published: 17:28 May 13, 2015

AFP

Cairo: UN and Arab officials began a two-day conference on Wednesday to seek ways to combat the “unprecedented” destruction of heritage sites by militant groups in the Middle East.

The Cairo conference comes amid an international outcry after Daesh circulated a video last month showing its militants bulldozing the ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in northern Iraq.

“The looting of archaeological sites has reached an unprecedented scale,” Irina Bokova, the head of UN cultural agency UNESCO, said at the opening session of the conference at a Cairo hotel.

“This cultural cleansing is being used as a tactic to terrify people... it is a war crime.”

Egypt’s Antiquities Minister Mamdouh Damaty also warned that heritage sites in the region were under threat.

“The region is suffering from this challenge of direct and indirect destruction of antiquities and human heritage,” Damaty said.

“There are attempts to demolish the human heritage of the region.... be it in Iraq, Libya or in Egypt.”

Foreign affairs and antiquities officials from 11 Arab countries including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Libya, Kuwait and Sudan were among those attending the conference.

The meeting is an effort to “fight against those who are taking away from us our common history,” said Deborah Lehr, the chairwoman of the Antiquities Coalition, a non-governmental group formed to fight the destruction of heritage sites.

“The world is appalled” at the destruction, she told the conference, adding that the meeting aims “to unite efforts to seek solutions to this threat”.

Daesh, which has captured territory in Iraq and Syria, has claimed the destruction of numerous artefacts in the region, especially in Iraq.

The Daesh-circulated video of Nimrud’s destruction showed the group’s militants using sledgehammers and power tools to break artefacts before rigging the site with explosives.

Subsequent footage showed a massive explosion and its aftermath, suggesting the ruins of Nimrud - which lie on the Tigris about 30 kilometres southeast of the city of Mosul - were largely destroyed.

Nimrud, founded in the 13th century BC, is one of the most famous archaeological sites in Iraq, a country often described as the cradle of civilisation.