NewsMine — war-on-terror — iraq — looting — museum — Viewing Item

Organized looters had keys { April 17 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2575224,00.html http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-2575224,00.html Experts: Looters Had Keys to Iraqi Vaults Thursday April 17, 2003 4:49 PM PARIS (AP) - Some of the looters who ravaged Iraqi antiquities appeared highly organized and even had keys to museum vaults and were able to take pieces from safes, experts said Thursday at an international meeting. One expert said he suspected the looting was organized outside the country. The U.N. cultural agency gathered some 30 art experts and cultural historians in Paris on Thursday to assess the damage to Iraqi museums and libraries looted in the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion. Although much of the looting was haphazard, experts said some of the thieves clearly knew what they were looking for and where to find it, suggesting they were prepared professionals. ``It looks as if part of the looting was a deliberate planned action,'' said McGuire Gibson, a University of Chicago professor and president of the American Association for Research in Baghdad. ``They were able to take keys for vaults and were able to take out important Mesopotamian materials put in safes.'' ``I have a suspicion it was organized outside the country, in fact I'm pretty sure it was,'' Gibson said. He added that if a good police team was put together, ``I think it could be cracked in no time.'' Cultural experts, curators and law enforcement officials are scrambling to both track down the missing antiquities and prevent further looting of the valuables. The pillaging has ravaged the irreplaceable Babylonian, Sumerian and Assyrian collections that chronicled ancient civilization in Mesopotamia, and the losses have triggered an impassioned outcry in cultural circles. Many fear the stolen artifacts have been absorbed into highly organized trafficking rings that ferry the goods through a series of middlemen to collectors in Europe, the United States and Japan. Officials at the UNESCO meeting at its headquarters in Paris said the information was still too sketchy to determine exactly what was missing and how many items were unaccounted for. The experts, which included Iraqi art officials, said some of the most valuable pieces had been placed in the vault of the national bank after the 1991 Gulf War, but they had no information on whether the items were still there. Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, began the meeting Thursday by calling for a U.N. resolution imposing a temporary embargo on trade in Iraqi antiquities. Matsuura said it was urgent to repair the antiquities that remain and to keep them from the hands of those who traffic in the lucrative market of stolen objects. ``It is always difficult, when communities are facing the consequences of an armed conflict ... to plead the case for preservation of the cultural heritage,'' Matsuura said. Matsuura said he would ask U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to seek a resolution against illicit trafficking that would also impose an embargo ``for a limited period'' on the acquisition of Iraqi cultural objects. Such a resolution would also call for the return of such items to Iraq, he said. In addition, Matsuura said the establishment of a nationwide ``heritage police'' was necessary to watch over cultural sites and institutions. Such a force could be set up by ``the authorities on the ground,'' an apparent reference to U.S. and British forces in Baghdad. ``To preserve the Iraqi cultural heritage is, in a word, to enable Iraq to successfully make its transition to a new, free and prosperous society,'' he said. He reiterated a call for governments to adopt emergency legal and administrative measures to prevent anyone's importing objects from Iraq and to museums and art dealers to refuse transactions in such objects. A database of all cultural objects needs to be quickly established so police, museums, customs authorities can act against any traffickers, he said. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003

Army told to protect museum { April 20 2003 } Blame us troops looters antiquities { April 12 2003 } Culture advisers resign over museum looting Items legal open market { April 15 2003 } Looted art said used to fund terrorists { June 23 2005 } Looters trash museums treasures { April 13 2003 } Looting required fork lift Marines 300 yards away Organized looters had keys { April 17 2003 } Organized outside the country { April 18 2003 } Our heritage is finished { April 13 2003 } Pilagers strip museum of treasure { April 13 2003 } Pros looted national museum Some items returned { April 24 2003 } Us government implicated theft treasures { April 19 2003 } Files Listed: 15

Correction/submissions

CIA FOIA Archive

National Security Archives

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information, go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purpose of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.