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IRAQ: U.S. Forces Fail Iraqi Treasures Again
By Sanjay Suri
LONDON, Apr 29 (IPS) - U.S. forces looked the other way while Iraqi museums
were being looted; now they are looking the other way as many of these
looted treasures are taken out of Iraq, says Donny George, Director of the
National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad.
"The Americans are controlling the border check points but they are not
controlling who is going out or what they are taking with them," George told
a packed press conference at the British Museum in London Tuesday.
George, who drove out of Iraq into Jordan said there were no controls
enforced by U.S. troops. "On the other side in Jordan they are checking
everyone thoroughly," he said. "And they have caught a dozen people trying
to smuggle looted treasures from Iraq's museums," he said. "I am very sorry
to say that almost all of them have been journalists."
At the moment it is only media people who are moving freely in and out of
Iraq, George said. "But the U.S. control is almost zero, and today anyone
can take anything and go out of Iraq," he said. "This is a tragedy. We are
appealing to the U.S. forces to stop this bleeding of antiques that is going
on."
George, who was at the National Museum in Baghdad just before the looting
began, said much of the looting could have been prevented if only the U.S
forces had moved a tank about 50 metres from where it had been positioned.
"We could see that the looters were outside," George said. Appeals were
made to the tank crew to move up but they said they had no orders."
George's graphic account of what followed raises serious questions about
the U.S. role. "We saw tanks coming at us from both sides on Tuesday April
8," he said. "Members of the militia jumped into our compound and heavy
fighting began. In the circumstances we all had to leave the compound."
The fighting was followed by the looting, which continued right until
Sunday. The violence in Baghdad all these days meant that George and his
staff could not return to the museum. "On Sunday we went to the U.S.
officers at Palestine Hotel to do what they could to stop the looting," he
said. "But it was not until Wednesday that they positioned four tanks to
guard the museum."
That was after a week of the looters having a free run of the museum,
George said. It was a week also after the first appeal to the U.S., and
three days after a formal appeal to the U.S. administration at their offices
in Palestine Hotel.
Much of that looting through the week was clearly pre-planned, George
said. "There were two kinds of looters, he said. "Some came in just like
they went into other buildings to loot what they could," he said. "But some
knew what there was in the museums, and they knew what they were looking
for."
George produced a glass cutter to show the kind of equipment some looters
came with. "We found four of these," he said. "Some had come prepared with
equipment to cut through the glass cases." There were some important fake
statues in the museum which were never touched, he said.
"Some of the most important masterpieces were taken," he said. Among
these he listed the following:
- The Warka Vase, a limestone vase decorated with reliefs from 3100 BC.
- Gold rosettes and copper cup, dated 2500 BC.
- Inscribed statue of King Entemena of Lagash, 2400 BC.
Of two figures of the reign of the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III, one was
looted and one returned - in three pieces.
But the museum curators still do not know what is missing, George said.
The looters got into the store rooms that housed about 170,000 precious
objects. Only when these are examined will they know what is missing. That
process can take six months at the very least, he said.
Some of the objects looted are being brought back after an appeal made
through local imams, George said. Daily appeals are being broadcast also on
the local radio stations.
George dismissed a suggestion by a journalist from the U.S. that the
looting could have been an "inside job" by museum staff and by Saddam
Hussein's thugs. "I know how Saddam Hussein cared for antiquities," he said.
"In one case some thieves entered a museum and cut off the head of an
object. Saddam had their heads cut off as punishment."
George said he was not praising Saddam Hussein for that action, but he
said it indicated that Saddam Hussein's men were not likely to be behind the
looting and destruction of the museums. (END/2003)
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