In Support of the ICC’s War Crimes Case on Heritage Destruction

The Antiquities Coalition strongly commends and supports the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to prosecute Ahmad Al-Mahdi Al Faqi for war crimes — in the first case brought before the ICC on the destruction of cultural property.  This landmark decision sends a strong message that the intentional destruction of our shared heritage will not be tolerated and that those who engage in these crimes will be held accountable for their actions.

ICCAl-Mahdi is a member of the al Qaeda-affiliated Ansar Dine in Mali.  He is being tried for directing the looting and destruction of the ancient North African city of Timbuktu in 2012.  According to the ICC arrest warrant, Al-Mahdi is alleged to have intentionally directed attacks against at least nine historic mausoleums and one mosque, as part of Ansar Dine’s campaign to eradicate anything they view as idolatry (even other forms of Islam). Timbuktu is recognized as a World Heritage Site by UNECSO for its rich Islamic architecture dating back to the 15th and 16th centuries.  

“This is the first such case and it breaks new ground for the protection of humanity’s shared cultural heritage and values,” said UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova. “The cultural heritage of Mali belongs to all humanity. It is vital that the criminals be brought to justice.” 

The Antiquities Coalition has long supported UNESCO’s calls to try members of terrorist organizations for deliberate and targeted attacks on cultural heritage, which are war crimes under international law. On March 6, we wrote the ICC Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda urging the court to immediately open an investigation into such crimes by ISIS in northern Iraq, including their destruction of the Mosul Library, Mosul Museum, and Assyrian ruins of Nimrud and Nineveh. The ICC has yet to launch a case against ISIS — for these or other atrocity crimes — but the Al-Mahdi prosecution sets a strong precedent.

Just two days before the ICC’s announcement, at the high level forum Culture Under Threat: Antiquities Trafficking and Terrorist Financing, we joined our co-hosts and partners UNESCO, the Asia Society, and Middle East Institute in pushing for ICC action on heritage crimes. This request was included in a “Call to Action” issued at the close of the event. We appeal to all those who share our concerns over this loss of our cultural heritage to sign on to this document here.

Confronting ‘looting to order’ and ‘cultural racketeering’ in Syria will help salvage our endangered heritage. Let’s do

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Confronting ‘looting to order’ and ‘cultural racketeering’ in Syria will help salvage our endangered heritage. Let’s do

General News 

By Franklin Lamb

Damascus

One of the many gut-wrenching dimensions of the soon to be five-year Syrian crisis is that whenever one surveys the conflict on the ground and concludes that the maelstrom can’t possibly get any worse, it plummets deeper into the abyss. The condition of people in Syria has never been worse in modern times.

This is also the case with the spreading cultural cleansing of our shared global heritage in Syria which this observer views as a precursor to ethnic cleansing. This scourge has been documented in detail by studies from the UN, EU, Archeologists, Syria’s Directorate General of Museums and Antiquities (DGAM) and others who closely monitor the desecration, looting and destruction at archaeological sites. According to the Association for the Protection of Syrian Archaeology (APSA) and other surveys, more than 1/3 of Syria’s 10,000 archeological sites are currently under the control of Da’ish (ISIS) who are looting them on an industrial scale for sale globally on the black market. It is not known with precision which or how many other Islamist nihilist militias are controlling other sites. A new report from the US Congress reports that 30,000 people have travelled, including 250 from the US, to join terror groups in the Middle East and Isis in particular, doubling the numbers of one year ago. “We are witnessing the largest global convergence of jihadists in history,” the report warned.

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Palmyra early May 2015. Before the arrival of Da’ish (ISIS). As of early October 2015 it is not known precisely what has been spared. (image by FPLamb)

According to the Antiquities Coalition, raising just $1 million from illicit trafficking of historic artifact in Syria supplies the group with more than 11,000 AK-47 machine guns or 1,250 rocket launchers. This is one of the reasons why Satellite images are revealing that archaeological sites in Syria are increasingly dotted by thousands of illegal excavations.

It is recalled that the looting following the United States-led 2003 invasion of Iraq involved organized international gangs, sometimes with corrupt “Operation Iraqi Freedom” coalition military personnel involved that were contracted to raid the National Museum in Baghdad and Mosul Museum. Mosul Museum director Bernadette Hanna-Metti and Mosul Museum curator Saba al-Omari reported that radio carrying looters also targeted specific antiquities at Nimrud, some with “shopping lists” in hand. Site director Muzahim Mahmud reported that the looters “ignored everything else, went right to that frieze” of a winged man carrying a sponge and a holy plant, “and took it” in a customized looting operation, fulfilling “orders from a buyer.”

The 18 statues that were intercepted as part of one lot in Jordan during 2004 were determined to be filling orders from dealers and within weeks of the looting of the National Museum in Baghdad, US. Customs intercepted an illicit shipment of 669 of its artifacts en route to an antiquities dealer in New York. But apart from police reports labeling these acts “looting to order”, “theft to order”, “stolen to order” or “commissioned theft” no one has even been charged with a crime. Going back to 2005, when al Qaeda was trafficking in looted antiquities, it was second as a source of funding only to kidnappings and ransom.

Similar cultural crimes are being committed today in Syria. It has been documented that Da’ish (ISIS), and Jabhat a-Nusra (al-Nusra Front) use WhatsApp and Skype (Parkinson, Albayrak, & Mavin, 2015), and some militia are using smartphones (Sogue, 2014) as well as employing social-media savvy experts around the world, often teenagers, to design and execute looted antiquities marketing programs.

The financial incentives to looting are very powerful such that to date the international community’s existing methods of prevention are largely ineffective.

But we must not be idle bystanders to a fire sale of our and Syria’s national and historical heritage.

So what can we do now that the continuing destruction of our cultural heritage has sparked a fresh round of global outrage? How can it be harnessed to save other heritage sites under nihilist Da’ish control? Short of defeating the entrenched jihadists militarily which appears highly unlikely anytime soon?

The challenges are great. The tens of thousands of foreign would-be jihadists who have now poured into Syria, most to join the perceived “A-team-Varsity Squads” of Da’ish (ISIS) and Jabhat Al Nusra. There is little evidence of success from international efforts to diminish their ranks. Few on the ground are much impressed by the new Russian hyped 4+1 planned coalition or the Russian proposed bilateral coordination with the U.S. against Islamic State. This is partly because currently, an average of about 1,000 foreign fighters are arriving every month ready to turn Syria into Russia’s new “Afghanistan” with pledges to fight for as long as it takes to expel Putin’s arriving forces. In the past year jihadists from 20 additional countries have entered Syria bringing to more than 100 the total number of countries with fighters in Syria.

Many suggestions have been heard by this observer in Syria including from local officials and citizens who are on the front lines trying to preserve and protect the cultural heritage that we all share. Some are proposing that cultural heritage benefactors buy the looted objects off looters and errant regular citizens and secure them in safety vaults somewhere until the fighting ends. This has actually been done in Syria with modest success but given its sensitivity, without much publicity. It has been reported that nearly 330,000 artifacts, many from lawless non-state actor areas, have been moved to safety from imminent danger from jihadists and profiteers.

The Syrian government currently has 2,500 people working to save Syria’s past, on both sides in many parts of Syria. Fourteen DGAM employees have been killed so far. It’s Director-General Dr. Abdul Karim has reported to this observer and others that “We saved 99 per cent of the collection in our museums. It’s good. It’s not just for the good of the government. It’s for the opposition, for humanity, for all Syria. It is our common identity, our common heritage.”

Ricardo J. Elia, an archaeologist at Boston University, endorsed a moratorium on purchasing trafficked item, arguing that “looting is a function of a system that runs on supply and demand. Would it not be possible for museum associations, dealer associations, auction houses, and private collections to say “look: this is a horrific crisis. Let’s just stop these things. Let’s diminish the demand side.” To avoid collecting potentially looted antiquities, Richard Stengel, US under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, recently proposed: “Don’t sell; don’t buy. That’s the best solution.”

A similar proposal comes from American cultural heritage lawyer Rick St. Hilaire who has prepared a proposal to avoid purchasing “blood antiquities.” It also promotes as a protective measure a “Don’t Buy” initiative backed by strict due diligence. It is worthy of implementation and can be linked to the 2009 Code of Ethics for Collectors of Ancient Artifacts authored by individual collectors that is being considered again given our current cultural heritage crisis. It urges the public and all buyers to protect archaeological heritage and uphold the law, check sources, collect sensitively, recognize the collector’s role as custodian, keep artifacts in one piece and consider the significance of groups of objects, promote further study, and dispose of artifacts responsibly.

To achieve these goals, the ethics code highlights common sense due diligence and acquisitions advice, including: “Ask the vendor for all relevant paperwork relating to provenance, export etc. Take extra care if collecting particular classes of object which have been subjected to wide-scale recent looting. Verify a vendor’s reputation independently before buying. Assure yourself that they are using due diligence in their trading practices, and do not support those who knowingly sell fakes as authentic or offer items of questionable provenance. Do not dismember any item, or acquire a fragment which you believe to have been separated from a larger object except through natural means. Consider the implications of buying an item from an associated assemblage and the impact this could have on study. Liaise, where possible, with the academic and broader communities about your artifacts.”

One encouraging sign that those destroying our cultural heritage may be more apt to face legal accountability before the International Criminal Court in The Hague is this month’s arrests and extradition of the alleged Islamic extremist Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi also known as “Abu Tourab” who the ICC claims was a member of Ansar Dine, an affiliate of Al Qaida. He appeared on 9/30/2015 before the ICC and was formally charged with involvement in the 2012 destruction of 14 of the 16 mausoleums and other historic buildings including a Mosque, in Timbuktu, Mali. The entire city of Timbuktu, nicknamed the “City of 333 Saints” is listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO and during the 15th and 16th centuries, operated 180 schools and universities that received thousands of students from all over the Muslim world. According to Corrine Dufka of Human Rights Watch’s Africa division, “The Abu Tourab case signals that there will be a price to pay for destroying the world’s treasures.”

On a related matter, during his 9/28/2015 UN General Assembly address, Ban Ki-moon called for the Syrian crisis to be referred to the International Criminal Court. This would include jurisdiction over all cultural heritage crimes committed at Syria’s archeological sites.

Several encouraging and admirable public and private initiatives are employing creative ways to protect Syria’s millennia-long cultural heritage are currently underway as experts and locals scramble to save what they can. Others are about to be launched, and all warrant our support. .

Some of the current initiatives include, but are not limited to the following.

The Million Image Database is a large-scale scholarly project targeting both object documentation, and trafficked object identification. The project is sending thousands of low-cost, easy-to-use 3-D cameras to volunteers across the Middle East to document sites and objects in their area. Images and videos collected in this way are received for processing by the project’s technical team in the United Kingdom via uploads to the project’s website. Some of these images will be used to create detailed maps of Syrian sites, and to create 3-D models of buildings and artifacts that will be useable as blueprints for full-scale reconstruction. The project website is closed to the public to protect volunteer’s anonymity and also to ensure that the initiative remains a purely scholarly venture, not a social media platform for activists, according to Alexy Karenowska, the project’s director of technology. But she assures that as project progresses, it will find a way to share storytelling from the material to the public. The images are to be collated in a huge, publically accessible database. Available to all, and under development in collaboration with UNESCO, the vision for this resource is for an ever-growing archaeological catalogue which brings together scholarly information about sites and artifacts, raises awareness of cultural heritage and cultural heritage preservation, and provides a new platform for the identification of trafficked objects. The database will be integrable with existing catalogues and lists of known missing or stolen items and employ the latest image comparison and feature recognition based search technology, removing the need for those inspecting suspect cargos or objects to have specialist knowledge.

Another project would carry out far more detailed scans of antiquities in Syria using laser scanners. The scanners bounce lasers off the surface of objects in the field, measuring millions of points a second to create a data set known as a point cloud. The data can be used to create 3-D images accurate to two or three millimeters to create models or virtual tours of the sites or allow full-scale reconstructions. This project, called “Anqa,” the Arabic word for the phoenix, the legendary bird that rises from the ashes, aims to laser-scan 200 objects in Syria, Iraq and other parts of the region, according to the California-based scanning company CyArk. It hopes to work with DGAM and other antiquities agencies in Syria, as well as UNESCO, to deploy teams in Damascus and other accessible areas.

A recently launched campaign is taking a more low-tech approach aiming at directly protecting at least some sites. The project, by the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), provides supplies and funding to local experts and volunteers for crates and other items to store artifacts and also sandbags to pack around unmovable structures to give some protection against shelling or bombs. This, according to LeeAnn Gordon, project manager for Conservation and Heritage Preservation at ASOR also using satellite images to track destruction of antiquities. One problem this initiative has to deal with is that US policy toward Syria prohibits the funding of governmental groups, thus limiting ASOR’s options in a country divided between government-controlled, and jihadist held areas.

We can all help raise awareness in our communities and instruct our politicians to tighten and enforce current national and international laws and to ratify the instruments of international humanitarian law that protect cultural heritage. Specifically the Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (The Hague 1954) and its two Protocols (1954 and 1999), as well as the Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property (Paris 1970); to implement them swiftly and efficiently into national legislation and in accord with their spirit and overarching goal to preserve cultural heritage, and to observe and enforce them.

Irina Bokova, the Director of UNESCO has called on governments to implement the U.N. Security Council’s Resolution 2199 which was adopted in February of this year and lays out serious penalties for the illegal importation of antiquities trafficked from regions under cultural threat.

Traveling around Syria one comes upon many heritage unfunded preservation projects through the initiative of local private citizens who love their country and want to preserve the cultural heritage of all of us. Some are reportedly being accomplished in rebel held areas where there is little technology and no resources. One of countless examples is the work of a history teacher, Suleiman al-Eissa who lives in Busra Sham, one of UNESCO’s six World Heritage sites in Syria. As reported recently by the AP, Suleiman al-Eissa, a history teacher leads a self-created “revolutionary” antiquities department to protect the ruins in his hometown of Busra Sham in southern Daraa province one of the six UNESCO World Heritage sites. Mr. Al-Eissa, like many Syrians, is documenting in writing current damage at local archeological sites while guarding some sites from looting.

We can and must support new dedicated groups like Heritage for Peace and the more than two dozen NGO’s recently formed that are working to protect archeological sites in Syria and Iraq. In each of our communities we can work on strengthening our national capacities, training for soldiers, more resources, experts on the ground, and better coordination with armed forces, Interpol, and other actors while encouraging volunteer organizations willing to send international volunteers experts as Cultural Heritage Monitors on the scene. Their work would be to assess, protect, and investigate cultural property destruction and looting. All this while working with locals of all religions and ethnicities who want to protect our and their cultural heritage. In other words we need to establish the cultural equivalent of the Red Cross and Blue Shield providing an emergency response to cultural property at risk from armed conflict.

As Dr. Emma Cunliffe, an archeologist at Oxford University pointed out recently: “Today’s Monument’s Men are often volunteers. Some are local people, such as the Syrian Association for Preserving Heritage and Ancient Landmarks, who work in Aleppo (a UNESCO World Heritage City) to try and save the monuments and buildings there during the current conflict. In 2006, America formed a Committee of the Blue Shield, a group of individuals committed to the protection of cultural property worldwide during armed conflict. The UK Committee was established last year, and other committees are located across the world.”

And there are many others.

The growing global groundswell of popular support spawning an international volunteer movement to confront and expel the non-state actors endangering our cultural heritage in Syria is cause for hope. And it’s a clarion call for each of us to join the growing public support for confronting ‘looting to order’ and ‘cultural racketeering’ in Syria to preserve and protect our shared culture heritage for those who follow us.

PDF of the article here

Antiquities Coalition Partners with UNESCO, Italy, and Jordan on New Initiative

The Antiquities Coalition is pleased to join our partners Italy and Jordan on their new initiative to protect cultural heritage from terrorists and traffickers, which was launched this Sunday at the 70th Session of the United Nations General Assembly.

Our chair and founder Deborah Lehr, co-founder Peter Herdrich, and Executive Director Tess Davis were honored to be in attendance for this special event, which featured Italy and Jordan’s Ministers of Foreign Affairs, UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova, UNODC Executive Director Yury Fedotov, and INTERPOL President Mireille Ballestrazzi, in addition to a number of ministers from UN member states.

AC at UNG“Protecting Cultural Heritage: An Imperative of Humanity” — launched with strong support from UNESCO, INTERPOL, and UNODC — aims to fully implement UN resolutions and decisions to cut off extremist funding from cultural racketeering. It built on the Antiquities Coalition’s high level forum, “Culture Under Threat: Antiquities Trafficking and Terrorist Financing,” which was held three days earlier at the Asia Society, and also joined by top leaders from Jordan, Italy, and UNESCO, as well as top delegations from other key countries in the fight against the illicit antiquities trade. With these events and with the new UN initiative, the Antiquities Coalition is working with our partners to continue the momentum from the 2015 Cairo Conference and subsequent Cairo Declaration, in which ten leading Middle Eastern and North African countries outlined a bold regional strategy to fight the trafficking of “blood antiquities.”

To learn more about Italy and Jordan’s new initiative, read their joint press release below:

 

GLOBAL INITIATIVE LAUNCHED TO COUNTER THE DESTRUCTION AND TRAFFICKING OF CULTURAL PROPERTY BY TERRORIST AND ORGANIZED CRIME GROUPS

UNITED NATIONS – A new international initiative to enhance the protection of cultural heritage targeted by terrorists and illicit traffickers has been launched at the United Nations by Jordan and Italy, supported by UNESCO, INTERPOL and UNODC.

The “Protecting Cultural Heritage—An Imperative for Humanity” initiative was launched on Sunday 27 September by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Italy and Jordan with the participation of principals from UNESCO, INTERPOL and UNODC as well as ministers from a number of UN member states on the sidelines of the 70th Session of the UN General Assembly.

The main goal of the programme is to follow up on resolutions and decisions adopted by the UN Security Council, the UN General Assembly and other international bodies.

Throughout the last decade, the world has witnessed a sharp increase in terrorist attacks on, and destruction of, the cultural heritage of countries affected by armed conflict. Organized looting, illicit trafficking and sale of cultural objects has reached an unprecedented scale.

Terrorist groups are using these acts as a tactic of war to intimidate populations and governments. In addition, these acts aim to generate income for terrorist groups across the Middle East and beyond, which is then used to support their recruitment and operational efforts.

This open-ended partnership comes against a backdrop of increased international activity aimed at countering this threat. The UN Security Council as well as the General Assembly have taken steps to condemn and deplore the destruction of cultural property.

Rallying partners to enhance the protection of cultural heritage, Paolo Gentiloni, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation of Italy, said: “Cultural heritage is a reflection of human history, civilization and the coexistence of multiple peoples and their ways of life. Its protection is a shared responsibility of the international community, in the interest of future generations.”

“The religious and cultural heritage of the Middle East, the birthplace of civilization and religions, belongs to all humanity,” said Nasser Judeh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Jordan, who appealed to the high-level participants to “protect and preserve it as it is the collective responsibility of the international community.”

Advocating for increased political commitment, Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO said, “Culture is on the frontline of conflict – we must place it at the heart of peacebuilding”.

The Executive Director of UNODC, Yury Fedotov emphasized the importance of joining efforts in addressing the issue of the trafficking and the destruction of cultural property as ‘crimes that strike at the very core of our civilization and heritage”

President of INTERPOL, the world’s largest police organization, Mireille Ballestrazzi stressed the need “to combine our efforts and resources to efficiently curb this criminal phenomenon and protect the world’s cultural heritage for future generations”.

The Protecting Cultural Heritage initiative is a project open to all member states, international organizations and partners wishing to join forces in support of the protection of cultural heritage from destruction and/or illicit trafficking.

The public is therefore also invited and encouraged to join the conversation on protecting heritage at #ProtectHeritage.

“Extremists Are Intimidated by History Because it De-legitimizes Them”

Nasser Judeh
HE Nasser Judeh, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

By: Peter Herdrich, Co-Founder, The Antiquities Coalition

This quote is one of the best explanations to a seemingly unanswerable question- why do the criminals and murderers of Daesh resort to cultural cleansing, destroying historic sites, monuments, and objects while killing citizens, throughout the Middle East? It comes from the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Jordan, Nasser Judeh. He offered the answer at the Antiquities Coalition’s “Culture Under Threat” forum on September 24, sponsored with our partners at the Asia Society, the Middle East Institute, and UNESCO. “These extremists are intimidated by history, because it de-legitimizes them,” Minister Judeh said. “It is true. History de-legitimizes them and therefore, in order to try to claim some sort of legitimacy, they have to destroy history and destroy what history represents.”

It’s a powerful quote. Newsweek used it in their excellent coverage of the forum and it was picked up on a couple of Twitter feeds as well. As concise and memorable as this quote is, a Bartlett’s-ready epigram seemingly wrought for editorialists and speakers seeking a reason why the terrorists do what many of us find unthinkable, it wasn’t the Minister who turned this phrase at all. And he’s happy to admit it.

The real author of this quote is not Minister Nasser Judeh. It’s Tariq Nasser Judeh, his son. At the Asia Society, Judeh pere explained that Tariq is a student of ancient Mediterranean civilization. Without mentioning his son’s name, the Minister said that before his speaking engagement at our “Culture Under Threat” forum, he called Tariq to ask what he thought about “the destruction of what belongs to humanity.”  It was then that Tariq said, “Extremists are intimidated by history, because it de-legitimizes them.” The Minister was rightfully impressed, and even joked that his son’s remark gave him his introductory remarks for the event.

Knowing a good line when he’s got one, Minister Judeh repeated it at the presentation of the “Culture Under Threat: An Imperative for Humanity” initiative launched by Jordan, Italy, UNESCO, UNODC, and Interpol at the United Nations on Sunday, September 27. I attended with my Antiquities Coalition colleagues Deborah Lehr and Tess Davis at the invitation of the Italian delegation. At its conclusion, I sought out the Minister to get his son’s name and sort this out.

A proud father greeted my question about the proper attribution for the quote. Minister Judeh was pleased to tell his son’s name is Tariq Nasser Judeh and that he is 21-years old and studies ancient Mediterranean civilization in Scotland. With paternal pride he gave all credit to Tariq for this insight and even wrote the quote out for me to insure that I got it right.

So, kudos to Tariq Nasser Judeh for turning such a perceptive phrase. Recall that it was he who said, “Extremists are intimidated by history, because it de-legitimizes them.” And think about Tariq’s insight, what it means, and most importantly, what we need to do to stop cultural cleansing.

 

To see the video of Minister Judeh on the origin of the phrase, click here for the complete coverage of the Culture Under Threat Forum on the Antiquities Coalition’s YouTube Channel. The story begins at 40:42.

Unprecedented Forum Unites Global Government Leaders with Archaeology, Art, Museum Communities in Fight Against “Cultural Cleansing”

Middle East Institute Antiquities Coalition Asia Society

“CALL TO ACTION” FOR INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO END TRADE IN CONFLICT ANTIQUITIES, SHUT DOWN KEY SOURCE OF TERRORIST FINANCING

NEW YORK (September 25, 2015) – At the Culture Under Threat forum held at the Asia Society headquarters in New York, Foreign Ministers and senior government officials from around the world joined leaders of arts institutions, archaeological associations, and experts in terrorism to stop the looting and trafficking of antiquities, and halt a major source of funding for terrorism.

Foreign Ministers of Egypt, Iraq, Jordan and Australia, as well as ambassadors and senior officials from Cambodia, Thailand, Italy, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia joined diverse experts in an unprecedented high-level, multi-sector forum to seek solutions to this black-market trade in “blood antiquities,” which has reached crisis proportions in the Middle East. The group of government, private-sector and NGO representatives, each with distinct roles to play in stemming the illicit trade, was convened by the Asia Society, the Antiquities Coalition, UNESCO, and the Middle East Institute.

“Culture has always been the victim of war, but what we see today is new,” said UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova. “New in scale and in nature, because we believe that attacks against heritage and culture are in fact attacks against people, against their identities, against their human rights. They are attacks against the humanity we all share.”

“We have to deal with this crisis by uniting,” said Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh. “We have to go beyond alarm, shock, and condemnation. The time has come for us to unite towards a more proactive approach and translate words into deeds before it is too late.”

Jordan is coordinating an initiative with Italy to build support for United Nations action to halt the trade in conflict antiquities.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, who has played a leading role in this fight, told the gathering that, “terrorists use the destruction of cultural heritage as a tactic of war to terrify populations, to finance terrorist activities, and to spread hatred.” He added, “the responsibility to confront these terrorist criminal acts lies with the international community, including governments, international and regional organizations, museums, the art market, archeologists, media, and all others who are interested in preserving this heritage for humanity.”

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari put it bluntly: “I believe that terrorism is seeking to destroy history,” he said, “and seeking to abolish our future.”

The host organizations issued a “Call to Action” for the international community to join forces in a strategic effort to halt the trade in conflict antiquities and, in doing so, cut off potential sources of terrorist revenue.

“We are witnessing not only the murder of people, but the murder of culture,” said Asia Society Policy Institute President and former Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd. “We must act together, now.”

The coordinated appeal calls for:

• The United Nations to formulate action plans to address “cultural cleansing”
• The International Criminal Court to launch a war crimes investigation against those entities that engage in “cultural cleansing”
• The international community, to support states in protecting, preserving, and documenting items of cultural heritage endangered by armed conflicts
• A global campaign to raise awareness about the purchase of conflict antiquities and terrorist financing
• All governments to take steps to prevent the trade in conflict antiquities
• All actors involved in the cultural property trade to be vigilant when obtaining antiquities from countries in conflict
The participants discussed a range of potential solutions to the crisis, including possible “boots on the ground” to provide site protection; a tightening of national and international laws against looting and trafficking; establishing a moratorium on the trade in conflict antiquities; a so-called “asylum for heritage” plan to safeguard treasures in parts of Syria and Iraq; the creation of national inventories – and, longer-term, a “digital archive” of cultural treasures for the Middle East; and the creation of organizations such as “Archaeologists without Borders” to support countries in crisis with additional resources.

“The presence of such a distinguished group of international experts demonstrates the necessary political will exists to address this crisis,” said Deborah Lehr, chair and co-founder of the Antiquities Coalition and co-chair of the forum. “Our intent is to unite our efforts and seek meaningful, practical solutions that will bring a halt to the trade in conflict antiquities and cut off funding for extremist organizations.”

Josette Sheeran, the Asia Society President and event co-chair, speaking of what she called the trade in “blood antiquities,” added: “These sites are for no one person or group to take, to remove, to destroy, to pillage, to steal, or to covet for themselves, or to use as fuel for death, or terror or destruction.”

The “Culture Under Threat” forum builds on the May 2015 Cairo Declaration, signed by Ministers from ten Middle East and North African countries, that outlined a regional strategy to combat the trafficking of looted antiquities and its links to terrorist financing.

“In tragedy there is opportunity,” added Middle East Institute Senior Vice President Kate Seelye. “This issue allows and even compels east and west to work together to fight for our shared humanity,”

At the start of the session, Director General Bokova, led a moment of silence to remember Khalid al-Asaad, the Syrian archaeologist beheaded by the Islamic State. Bokova noted that “culture today is on the front line of conflict, and it also should be at the heart of all the security, humanitarian and peace building measures.”
For more about this unprecedented forum, see the Asia Society blog HERE.

Media contact: Sarah Courtney at press@wcsemail.com.

Arab Foreign Ministers Condemn Cultural Cleansing Of Heritage Landmarks

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Arab Foreign Ministers Condemn Cultural Cleansing Of Heritage Landmarks

By Manik Mehta

NEW YORK, Sept 25 (Bernama) — Foreign ministers of a number of Arab countries unanimously condemned the “cultural cleansing” of heritage landmarks, carried out last month by the terrorist group IS (Islamic State) in the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria and other places, and also over a decade ago by the Taliban in Bamayan, Afghanistan.

Meeting Thursday at a forum at the Asia Society in New York — the event was co-hosted by Asia Society president Josette Sheeran and Antiquities Coalition chairperson Deborah Lehr – to discuss regional solutions to the recent surge in the destruction and looting of antiquities across the Middle East.

The speakers included UNESCO director general Irina Bokova, Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, the Iraqi foreign minister, Nasser Judeh, Jordan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister, Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Hassan Shoukry, and Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop. Former Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd, who is currently the president of Asia Society’s Policy Institute, moderated the discussion.

The destruction of Palmyra was accompanied by looting museums and demolishing millennia-old structures such as the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel. As militants searched for artifacts, they captured the 82-year-old renowned antiquities scholar Khaled al-Asaad, who was tortured and beheaded for his refusal to lead his captors to more treasures.

Bokova made an emotional appeal to stop what she called the “cultural cleansing” – the term caught on with the panelists, with Rudd also using it to highlight the destruction of the cultural heritage.

She called for “strengthening the fabric of law to preserve our cultural heritage”.

“No one responsible for cultural destruction should remain unpunished because it is as bad as killing people,” she said.

Shoukry, reminding of the possibility of Da’esh – or ISIL, as it is called in UN parlance – destroying an ancient Roman city in Libya, urged the international community to act against the destruction of heritage landmarks and stop the antiquities smuggling.

The upheavals of the Arab Spring of 2011 was followed by the rise of terror groups like IS, with countries throughout the Middle East facing a proliferation of instances of cultural destruction and antiquities trafficking, the latter used to finance terrorism.

According to Egyptian sources, Egypt alone saw an increase of between 500 and 1,000 per cent in looting at major archeological sites; Antiques Coalitions estimates that US$3 billion losses were incurred due to cultural racketeering.

Judeh, Jordan’s deputy prime minister and foreign minister said that terrorists were intimidated by history which delegitimised them.

“They are pure and simple criminals, killers, because they are destroying the artefacts.”

Bishop said that destroying a group’s heritage and history weakened traditional communal bonds, “leaving individuals ‘orphaned and empty in a cold world,” which makes them ideal potential converts for a movement like Daesh.

Al-Jaafari called for regional cooperation between neighbouring countries to protect antiquities and protect the human legacy while Inigo Lambertini said that terrorists were intimidated by history, but they were also very interested in money.

“Basically what’s happening in Palmyra is not only the destruction of cultural heritage, but also a boom in illicit trafficking of historic artifacts, ” he said.

Historical artifacts are a major source of funding supporting groups like Da’esh. Antiquities Coalition estimates that just $1 million can be enough to supply the group with more than 11,000 AK-47 machine guns or 1,250 rocket launchers.

The second part of the discussion, moderated by Asia President Sheeran and Antiquities Coalition chairperson Deborah Lehr, focused on preventing smuggling of antiquities and cutting off financing of terrorism.

Another participant Col. Matthew Bogdanos argued that existing methods of prevention of smuggling and terrorism financing are largely ineffective, but also warned against relying on Western military aid as a solution. “Boots on the ground is not a cure,” he said.

— BERNAMA

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Egypt warns of terrorist groups’ threats to antiquities around the world

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Egypt warns of terrorist groups’ threats to antiquities around the world

Posted by: APA Posted date : September 25, 2015 at 12:48 pm UTC

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Copyright: APA

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry has highlighted the threats posed by terrorist groups that he said often resort to destroying antiquities and terrorize civilians.

Shoukry made the remarks during a conference held in New York under the rubric “Culture Under Threat: Antiquities Trafficking and Terrorist Financing.”

The conference was held under the patronage of UNESCO and a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), according to the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ahmed Abo Zeid in a statement issued here Friday.

Shoukry pointed out the danger posed by the Daesh group on the antiquities in Libya, Boko Haram in Nigeria, and al Qaida in other parts of the world.

Shoukry reviewed efforts exerted by Egypt to prevent the smuggling of antiquities and to protect the cultural heritage in Egypt and the Middle East.

The conference tackled ways to prevent the smuggling of and trading in antiquities in conflict-stricken areas in order to curb financing terrorism, Abo Zaid added.

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Egypt FM warns of suicide groups threats to antiquities

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Egypt FM warns of suicide groups threats to antiquities
Fri, 25/09/2015 – 09:17 – MENA

Copyright: Al Masry Al Youm
Copyright: Al Masry Al Youm
Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on Thursday highlighted the threats posed by the terrorist groups that resort to destroy antiquities and terrorize civilians.
Shoukry made the remarks during a conference held in New York under the rubric “Culture Under Threat: Antiquities Trafficking and Terrorist Financing.”
The conference was held under the patronage of UNSCO and a number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
Shoukry pointed out to the danger of the terrorist Daesh group on the antiquities in Libya.
Shoukry reviewed efforts exerted by Egypt to prevent the smuggling of antiquities and to protect the cultural heritage in Egypt and the Middle East, said spokesman for Foreign Ministry Ahmed Abo Zeid.

The conference tackled ways to prevent the smuggling of and trading in antiquities in conflict-stricken areas in order to curb financing terrorism, Abo Zaid said.

 

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Jordanian FM takes part in Int’l meeting to save Mideast’s antiquities from terrorism

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Jordanian FM takes part in Int’l  meeting to save Mideast’s antiquities from terrorism


Jordanian FM speaking
New York, Sept. 25 (Petra) — Minister of Foreign Affairs and Expatriate Affairs Nasser Judeh on Thursday took part in a conference dedicated to save the Middle East antiquities from terrorism.

The meeting, titled “Culture Under Threat: the Fight to Save the Middle East’s Antiquities from Terrorism”, was held on the sidelines of the 70th session of the UN General Assembly, currently underway in New York.

The gathering aimed at discussing ways to bolster efforts to protect the archeological sites and antiquities from terrorism as well as activating agreements protecting these locations.

Judeh, who is also deputy prime minister, told the attendees that protecting such important locations cannot be done without united efforts by the international community as well as concerned international agencies, NGOs and civil society organizations.

The minister also stressed the importance of fighting the illegal trade in antiquities and protecting the cultural heritage of countries.

Meanwhile, the foreign minister said it was important to address the core reasons for the growing phenomenon of illegal antiquities trade, noting that political will is key to solving such issues.

Judeh also spoke about the Jordanian efforts in the fight to save antiquities.

//Petra// A SH
25/9/2015 – 06:52:18 PM

 

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Antiquities Still at Risk, Experts Warn

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Antiquities Still at Risk, Experts Warn

By RICK GLADSTONE

SEPT. 24, 2015

The pillaging of antiquities by Islamic State militants is thriving in Syria and Iraq despite efforts to counter it, Middle East officials and archaeological experts  said Thursday at a conference on the illicit trafficking of artifacts. Irina Bokova, the director general of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said all six Unesco World Heritage sites in Syria had been damaged in that country’s war, including the most recent destruction in the ancient city of Palmyra. “Culture has always been a victim of war, but what we’re seeing today is new,” Ms. Bokova said at the Asia Society in New York.

 

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With Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Australia, Director-General Calls for Joint Action to Protect Cultural Heritage

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With Iraq, Jordan, Egypt and Australia, Director-General Calls for Joint Action to Protect Cultural Heritage

24.09.2015 – ODG

Culture Under Threat Forum
© UNESCO/Bob Krasner-UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, speaking at a high-level conference on the destruction of cultural heritage in conflict, organized by the Asia Society, the Antiquities Coalition and the Middle East Institute, held at Asia Society Headquarters in New York, 24 September 2015

On 24 September, UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, participated in a high-level conference on the destruction of cultural heritage in conflict, organized by the Asia Society, the Antiquities Coalition and the Middle East Institute, held at Asia Society Headquarters in New York.

The event took place with the participation of H.E. Dr Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, Foreign Minister of Iraq, H.E. Mr Nasser Judeh, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, H.E. Mr Sameh Hassan Shoukry, Foreign Minister of Egypt, and H.E. Ms Julie Bishop, Foreign Minister of Australia, Mr Kevin Rudd, President of the Asia Society Policy Institute, Ms Josette Sheeran, President of the Asia Society, and Ms Deborah Lehr, Chair of the Antiquities Coalition — along with experts and officials from across the cultural field.

“Culture is attacked, precisely because of what it represents to the people of Iraq and Syria and the region, because of what it embodies to all women and men – a vision of humanity united around diversity,” declared the Director-General, giving an overview of the extent of destruction to cultural sites in Syria and Iraq.

She reviewed UNESCO’s action to mitigate the risk of destruction and pillaging through monitoring and capacity-building, to fight illicit trafficking with neighbouring countries and all international partners through enhanced law enforcement and border control, to document what has been destroyed and prepare for reconciliation, as well as to counter the propaganda of hatred through new forms of communication.

She underlined the importance of UN Security Council Resolution 2199 here, and UNESCO’s leadership in moving it forward.

This includes the launch at the University of Baghdad in March of a global social media campaign, #Unite4Heritage, to engage youth in challenging the propaganda of violence and to strengthen unity around shared values.

“These are attacks against people, against their identities, against their human rights,” said Irina Bokova.

“This is why today, more than ever, we must stand together, to protect cultural heritage, combat illicit trafficking of cultural property and to transmit this shared wealth to future generations, so they can build stable and just societies.”

During the conference, a tribute was paid to the 82-year old Syrian archaeologist Khaled Assad, former manager of antiquities at Palmyra, brutally killed in August © Bob Krasner
During the conference, a tribute was paid to the 82-year old Syrian archaeologist Khaled Assad, former manager of antiquities at Palmyra, brutally killed in August
© Bob Krasner

The Director-General said that the fight against cultural cleansing is a peacebuilding imperative: “these are attacks against peace, to undermine the grounds for reconciliation.”

While commending UNESCO for spearheading the international response, former Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd emphasized that “the strong voice and engagement of foreign ministers are needed – globally, and in the region.”

The Foreign Minister of Egypt, H.E. Mr Sameh Hassan Shoukry, called for stronger action, including regional cooperation, reminding of the Cairo Regional Conference on Culture Under Threat, in May‎.

Jordanian Foreign Minister, H.E. Mr Nasser Judeh, said: “terrorists are terrified by history,” and this‎ fuels the destruction and looting of humanity’s cultural heritage.

He laid emphasis on the need to act urgently and together, with the international community standing united for dialogue and peaceful coexistence. He supported UNESCO’s reference to ‘cultural cleansing’ to depict the threat posed by violent extremism.

H.E. Ms Julie Bishop, Australia Foreign Minister‎, reviewed the roots of violent extremism, and the importance of destroying history for Da’esh.

She linked the fight against trafficking with the wider struggle against terrorism, underlining this starts with national legislation and policies:

“This is about the essence of humankind,” said the Australian Foreign Minister.

H.E. Mr Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, Foreign Minister of Iraq‎‎, said cultural destruction and looting are attacks against the history of human civilisation, the present and to abolish its future. He stressed the need for legal responses and stronger regional cooperation against trafficking.

“Iraq is on the frontline,” he said, “we must not allow the culture of despair to spread.”

“There is so much to be done,” said Irina Bokova, “to strengthen legislation, to bolster capacities, to deepen cooperation, all of this to protect the cultural heritage that belongs to us all.”

 

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Can the World Save Antiquities Under Terrorist Threat?

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Can the World Save Antiquities Under Terrorist Threat?

by Eric Fish – September 24, 2015 

Asia Society

Watch the video: “Preventing Antiquities Destruction: ‘We Have to Realize the World Wasn’t Ready’”

Last month, the jihadist extremist group the Islamic State (known locally as “Daesh”) ransacked the ancient city of Palmyra in Syria, looting museums and demolishing millennia-old structures such as the 2,000-year-old Temple of Bel. As militants searched for artifacts, they captured the 82-year-old renowned antiquities scholar Khaled al-Asaad and demanded he lead them to more treasures. Even under torture, al-Asaad refused. For his defiance, he was ultimately beheaded.

“Here we had a scholar, a humanitarian, a person who dedicated his life to the preservation of our common heritage,” said Asia Society Policy Institute President Kevin Rudd, speaking at Culture Under Threat, an event held Thursday morning at Asia Society in New York. “And then in this moment where he became vulnerable in the hands of those who are definitionally evil, he was slaughtered. He has truly become a martyr for our common cultural heritage, and he lives as an inspiration to us all. I think if he were here, he would call us to arms about what we do next.”

Since the Arab Spring of 2011 and subsequent rise of terror groups like ISIS, countries throughout the Middle East have experienced rapidly multiplying instances of cultural destruction and antiquities trafficking, the latter in order to finance terrorism. Egypt alone has seen between a 500 and 1,000 percent increase in looting at major archeological sites and $3 billion in losses to cultural racketeering, according to the Antiquities Coalition. Rudd joined a gathering of high-level foreign ministers, such as Ibrahim Al-Jaafari, Iraq’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nasser Judeh, Jordan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Sameh Hassan Shoukry, Egypt’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, as well as cultural preservationists to discuss the worsening threat.

“Culture has always been the victim of war, but what we see today is new,” said UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova. “New in scale and in nature, because we believe that attacks against heritage and culture are in fact attacks against people, against their identities, against their human rights. They’re attacks against the humanity we all share.”

Bokova used the term “cultural cleansing,” calling the destruction of antiquities a strategy to spread hatred and deepen sectarian violence. “It is no longer only a cultural emergency, it is a security issue,” she added.

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop agreed, citing the 1951 book The True Believer by American philosopher Eric Hoffer, which argued that fanatical mass movements break down existing group ties as part of their strategy to find new recruits. “There’s an established link between extremist ideologies, such as that of Daesh, and the destruction and trafficking of antiquities,” Bishop said. “Destroying a group’s heritage and history weakens traditional communal bonds, leaving individuals ‘orphaned and empty in a cold world,’ which makes them ideal potential converts for a movement like Daesh … Hence, Daesh ransacks and destroys ancient sculptures and artifacts and burns priceless manuscripts that tie the people of the Middle East to their real and extraordinary histories.”

Inigo Lambertini, Italian deputy permanent representative to the United Nations, agreed with attendees pointing out the threat terror groups see in shared cultural heritage. “Terrorists are intimidated by history,” he said. “But they’re also very interested in money. Basically what’s happening in Palmyra is not only the destruction of cultural heritage, but also a boom in illicit trafficking of historic artifacts.”

This “cultural racketeering” of historical artifacts, many of which can fetch millions of dollars on the international black market, is a major source of funding supporting groups like Daesh. According to the Antiquities Coalition, just $1 million can be enough to supply the group with more than 11,000 AK-47 machine guns or 1,250 rocket launchers.

In the second half of Thursday’s event, a wide-ranging panel discussion moderated by Asia Society PresidentJosette Sheeran and Antiquities Coalition Chairman Deborah Lehr featured extensive remarks from U.S. Col. Matthew Bogdanos, whose work protecting the Iraqi National Museum formed the basis of his book Thieves of Baghdad.  Bogdanos argued that the financial incentives to looting are more powerful than the international community realizes — and that existing methods of prevention are largely ineffective.

“Going back to 2005, when al Qaeda was trafficking in antiquities, it was second only to kidnappings and ransom [as a source of funding],” he said. “ISIS is making tens of millions, and that I am telling you that this is a low figure that is not exaggerated.” Bogdanos also discussed the inherent difficulties of halting antiquities trading, and warned against relying on Western military aid as a solution. “Boots on the ground is not a cure all,” he said. “It has to be part of an overall strategy.”

Vishakha Desai, President Emeritus of Asia Society, remarked that the panel isn’t new. In 2001, the Taliban destruction of giant Buddha sculptures in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, stirred international outrage — but no mechanisms were put in place to prevent it from happening again.

“I am reminded of the last time [Asia Society] did [an event] like this, which was called Beyond Bamiyan: Will the World Be Ready Next Time? ” she said. “And it’s sad, because we have to recognize that the world wasn’t ready next time.” Noting that valuable objects are often located in areas controlled by “lawless non-state actors,” Desai added that “we have to think about what happens when the objects are confiscated, and in fact we might not be able to send objects back to countries who are in the middle of a huge, horrendous war. So we might want to think about whether there’s a way to create a way station, an interim museum, where the objects come together.”

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