Collateral damage
In addition to the threat of damage from military action to Iraq's outstanding ancient monuments and sites, a war on Iraq could leave the country's heritage open to looting in the chaos following the first military strikes, writes David Tresilian from Paris
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Life imitates art: An Assyrian king launches an assault on a fortified city; a relief from Ashurbanipal palace, in Ninevah, displaying a lion hunt, from the collection of the British Museum
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As the threat of an American-led war against Iraq increases, attention is turning not only to the loss of life and social and economic devastation that such a war could cause, but also to the effects of any conflict on Iraq's unusually rich cultural heritage, which includes the remains of several ancient Near Eastern civilisations. Earlier this month, the state-run British television channel BBC2 aired a BBC documentary film, Lost Cities of Iraq, which claimed that some of the Iraq's and the ancient world's most important monuments and sites could be destroyed in the event of war.
According to the British historian Dan Cruickshank, who presents the film, made last November with the cooperation of the Iraqi government, the remains of the ancient city of Babylon, a site associated with the Biblical Garden of Eden, and one of the world's oldest Christian monasteries would be under threat in the event of military action against Iraq.
In the film, Cruickshank is shown visiting Querna in the south of Iraq, where the Tigris River meets the Euphrates and where the Garden of Eden, the paradise from which Adam and Eve were expelled according to the Old Testament Book of Genesis, is believed to have been located. He also visits Mosul in northern Iraq, once a centre of Ancient Assyrian civilisation, the Islamic site of Samarra, with its ninth-century minaret, once the seat of the Abbasid Caliphate, and the ancient city of Hatra.
At Hatra, Cruickshank says that "the close juxtaposition of history and modern military construction is particularly disturbing," referring to a nearby airbase that could be a target in a war on Iraq.
The BBC's programme has focussed attention on the damage that a war could have on these sites, as well as on other remains of the Ancient Sumerian, Assyrian, Babylonian, Christian and Islamic civilisations that have flourished in what is now modern Iraq on the fertile plain between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that is often referred to as the "cradle of civilisation".
A decade ago, the 1991 Gulf War caused damage to the ancient city of Ur, damaging the famous ziggurat, a vast brick structure shaped liked a stepped pyramid dating back to the 21st century BC. According to a British Ministry of Defence spokesman quoted in the London newspaper The Times on 27 January, Ur "was a casualty of Saddam's decision to situate an airbase there".
A second war on Iraq, this time carried out on Iraqi territory, and, according to some reports, including plans to rain more than 3,000 guided missiles on military targets and infrastructure in the first 48 hours of conflict, could cause much more severe damage to a greater number of sites.
Protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict is governed by the 1954 Hague Convention of the same name, which sets out the obligations of warring parties towards the protection of cultural materials. The Convention, to which 103 countries are now party, is administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) based in Paris, France.
According to the Hague Convention, drawn up following the damage suffered by cultural property during the Second World War, states parties should "prepare in time of peace for the safeguarding of cultural property situated within their own territory against the foreseeable effects of an armed conflict", and they should refrain "from any use of the property and its immediate surroundings or of the appliances in use for its protection for purposes which are likely to expose it to destruction or damage in the event of armed convict".
Cultural property may also be placed on a special international register, giving it additional protection, as long as such property is "situated at an adequate distance from any large industrial centre or from any important military objective".
Neither Britain nor the United States, the two countries pushing most for an early war on Iraq, are signatory to the convention. Iraq is signatory to it, committing the Iraqi government to placing cultural heritage as far away as possible from military or other targets and ensuring that such installations are not placed near important monuments or sites.
According to the British Ministry of Defence spokesman quoted in London's the Times, "during the Gulf War we went to great lengths to avoid hitting important sites, and 'smart' bombs have reduced collateral damage." In the event of a further war on Iraq, "a list of monuments to avoid will be drawn up."
Speaking to Reuters on 7 February, Laurent Lévi-Strauss, a UNESCO official, said that the Organisation would issue "precise instructions" regarding Iraq's cultural heritage in the event of conflict.
Though Iraq possesses many dozens of important archaeological and cultural sites, as well as significant museum and other collections, only one of these, the remains of the ancient city of Hatra near Mosul in northern Iraq, is listed on UNESCO's World Heritage List.
This contains examples of outstanding cultural and natural sites from the 176 countries signatory to the 1972 World Heritage Convention. Egypt has six sites on the list, including sites covering large areas and including many monuments, such as Ancient Thebes and Islamic Cairo.
According to Giovanni Boccardi, responsible for Arab States at UNESCO's World Heritage Centre, Iraq had a large and expert community of conservators, archaeologists and other experts until quite recently, meaning that Iraq's cultural heritage was well managed, documented and conserved.
However, political events and the sanctions regime operating against the country since the 1991 Gulf War have meant that information on the state of conservation of many of Iraq's monuments and sites can now be difficult to come by. In addition, levels of technical expertise and international exchange have declined, meaning that Iraq has been experiencing difficulty in meeting conditions for the inscription of sites on the UNESCO list, which include plans for site management and conservation drawn up to international standards.
UNESCO is now aiding the Iraqi authorities in registering other sites on the list, for example by preparing technical reports on the Ancient Assyrian site of Ashur, which is threatened by the construction of a dam, Boccardi said.
A further threat to Iraq's heritage that is as serious as possible war and the declining exchange between Iraqi scholars and those from the outside world is that of looting during and following possible conflict.
Experience has shown that the collapse of government authority in conflict zones, as happened in Afghanistan during the civil war in the 1990s, in Lebanon in the 1980s, and in Cambodia, among other countries, can result in the looting of cultural treasures and of heritage sites, which are heavily guarded in peacetime.
During the 1990s, much of the contents of the Kabul Museum in Afghanistan disappeared into the hands of looters, for example, some of it turning up on the international art market. A similar fate befell parts of collections from Lebanon's national museum in Beirut and other sites during the decades of civil conflict in that country, and looting has been a significant problem in Cambodia at the Khmer site of Angkor.
Should government authority collapse in Iraq as a result of war against the country, museums and sites and monuments, usually heavily secured, will be defenceless against looting in the chaos that could follow. The example of Afghanistan has shown that in such conditions thieves will issue lists of prized artefacts, paying high prices for objects that can later be sold on illegally to unscrupulous international dealers or collectors.
