NEWS: Oil ministry an untouched building in ravaged Baghdad.

1.


AFP. 16 April 2003. Oil ministry an untouched building in ravaged Baghdad.

BAHGDAD -- Since US forces rolled into central Baghdad a week ago, one of 
the sole public buildings untouched by looters has been Iraq's massive oil 
ministry, which is under round-the-clock surveillance by troops.

The imposing building in the Al-Mustarisiya quarter is guarded by around 50 
US tanks which block every entrance, while sharpshooters are positioned on 
the roof and in the windows.

The curious onlooker is clearly unwelcome. Any motorist who drifts within a 
few metres of the main entrance is told to leave immediately.

Baghdad residents have complained that US troops should do more to protect 
against the looters, most of them Shi'ite Muslims repressed by Saddam 
Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime who live in the vast slum known as Saddam 
City on the northern outskirts.

But while museums, banks, hotels and libraries have been ransacked, the oil 
ministry remains secure.

The symbolism is loaded, considering how vehemently the United States and 
Britain denied war opponents' accusations that the campaign to oust Saddam 
was driven by oil lust.

"They came from the other side of the world. Do you believe they're going 
to do much for me? They've just come for the oil," fumed Salam Mohammad 
Hassan, a doctor who lives near the ministry.

Residents noted that the irrigation ministry, just next door, was torched.

US Captain Scott McDonald told AFP the US is "only safeguarding Iraq's 
potential which would otherwise be considered game for looters."

In front of the oil ministry, a young Iraqi sat down in hopes of selling 
cigarettes.

"Before, lots of people would stop here to buy from me, that's why I've 
kept coming. But there hasn't been anyone for a few days."

Upon saying that, he was kicked out unceremoniously by a soldier.


2.

AFP. 15 April 2003. Amnesty says US protecting oil wells better than Iraqi 
people.

LONDON -- US and British forces are working harder to protect Iraq's oil 
fields than to protect the Iraqi people, the human rights organisation 
Amnesty International said Tuesday.

"It would seem more preparation was made by the coalition to protect oil 
wells than to protect hospitals or water plants," Amnesty's 
Secretary-General Irene Khan said, adding that the response to disorder has 
been "shockingly inadequate."

Khan pointed out that Amnesty and others had repeatedly warned that with 
the fall of the regime, law and order would break down and insecurity could 
endanger lives and property.

"Much planning and resources seem to have been devoted to securing Iraqi 
oilfields," she continued. "However, there is scarce evidence of similar 
levels of planning and allocation of resources for securing public and 
other institutions essential for the survival and well-being of the 
population."

She said coalition forces must vet potential Iraqi police officers to make 
sure they had not been implicated in human rights abuses, and that US and 
British forces must be deployed with the right training and equipment to 
maintain law and order.

The coalition must also ensure that rights of freedom of expression and 
assembly are not arbitrarily restricted, she said, adding:

"The first taste of the coalition's approach to law and order will not have 
inspired confidence in the Iraqi people."

3.

AP. 15 April 2003. Pillagers sack, burn Baghdad's most important libraries.

BAGHDAD -- Looters and arsonists ransacked and gutted Iraq's National 
Library, leaving a smoldering shell Tuesday of precious books turned to ash 
and a nation's intellectual legacy gone up in smoke.

They also looted and burned Iraq's principal Islamic library nearby, home 
to priceless old Qurans; last week, thieves swept through the National 
Museum and stole or smashed treasures that chronicled this region's role as 
the "cradle of civilization."

"Our national heritage is lost," an angry high school teacher, Haithem 
Aziz, said as he stood outside the National Library's blackened hulk.

"The modern Mongols, the new Mongols did that. The Americans did that. 
Their agents did that," he said as an explosion boomed in the distance as 
the war winds down.

Today, the rumors on the lips of almost all Baghdadis is that the looting 
that has torn this city apart is led by U.S.-inspired Kuwaitis or other 
non-Iraqis bent on stripping the city of everything of value.

Inside the gutted Islamic library on the grounds of the Religious Affairs 
Ministry, not a recognizable book or manuscript could be seen among the 
dark ash.

The destruction has drawn condemnation worldwide, with many criticizing 
U.S.-led coalition forces for failing to prevent or stop the looting, 
sometimes carried out by whole Iraqi families.

"I can't express the sorrow I feel. This is not real liberation," said an 
artist in a wing of the National Library that had been looted but not burned.

"They had manuscripts from the Ottoman and Abbasid periods," Aziz said, 
referring to dynasties dating back a millennium.

"All of them were precious, famous. I feel such grief."

Armored vehicles were positioned on the nearby street, manned by U.S. Marines.

They did nothing to stop Tuesday's continuing trickle of looters.



www.utopia2000.org

4.

US accused of PLANS TO LOOT Iraqi antiques:RICH NAZI ART DEALERS met Bush 
Admin. (english)
babylon 12:55am Sun Apr 13 '03 (Modified on 1:57am Sun Apr 13 '03)
 article#311760

. . .a coalition of antiquities collectors and arts lawyers. . ., American 
Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), met with US defence and state 
department officials prior to the start of military action to offer its 
assistance in preserving. . . . [Group] known to consist of a number of 
influential dealers who favour a relaxation of Iraq's tight restrictions on 
the ownership and export of antiquities. Its treasurer, William Pearlstein, 
has described Iraq's laws as 'retentionist'. . .[its] meeting with the 
[U.S. before the war] has alarmed scientists and archaeologists. . .ACCP 
has caused deep unease among archaeologists since its creation in 2001. 
.[its]. . members. . [have]. . .chequered histories in collecting. . 
.including alleged exhibitions of Nazi loot.

[3 articles--AND NOTE: Only the Kurds have been protecting musuems. Long 
live the Kurds! America out of Iraq! Out of Dar-al-Islam!]



US accused of plans to loot Iraqi antiques
Posted on Sunday, April 13 @ 01:08:59 EDT by JohnBrown
Submitted by sv3n


by Liam McDougall, Sunday Herald [UK]
April 6, 2003

FEARS that Iraq's heritage will face widespread looting at the end of the 
Gulf war have been heightened after a group of wealthy art dealers secured 
a high-level meeting with the US administration.

It has emerged that a coalition of antiquities collectors and arts lawyers, 
calling itself the American Council for Cultural Policy (ACCP), met with US 
defence and state department officials prior to the start of military 
action to offer its assistance in preserving the country's invaluable 
archaeological collections.

The group is known to consist of a number of influential dealers who favour 
a relaxation of Iraq's tight restrictions on the ownership and export of 
antiquities. Its treasurer, William Pearlstein, has described Iraq's laws 
as 'retentionist' and has said he would support a post-war government that 
would make it easier to have antiquities dispersed to the US.

Before the Gulf war, a main strand of the ACCP's campaigning has been to 
persuade its government to revise the Cultural Property Implementation Act 
in order to minimise efforts by foreign nations to block the import into 
the US of objects, particularly antiques.




News of the group's meeting with the government has alarmed scientists and 
archaeologists who fear the ACCP is working to a hidden agenda that will 
see the US authorities ease restrictions on the movement of Iraqi artefacts 
after a coalition victory in Iraq.

Professor Lord Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, leading Cambridge archaeologist and 
director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, said: 
'Iraqi antiquities legislation protects Iraq. The last thing one needs is 
some group of dealer-connected Americans interfering. Any change to those 
laws would be absolutely monstrous. '

A wave of protest has also come from the Archaeological Institute of 
America (AIA), which says any weakening of Iraq's strict antiquities laws 
would be 'disastrous'. President Patty Gerstenblith said: 'The ACCP's 
agenda is to encourage the collecting of antiquities through weakening the 
laws of archaeologically-rich nations and eliminate national ownership of 
antiquities to allow for easier export. '

The ACCP has caused deep unease among archaeologists since its creation in 
2001. Among its main members are collectors and lawyers with chequered 
histories in collecting valuable artefacts, including alleged exhibitions 
of Nazi loot.

They denied accusations of attempting to change Iraq's treatment of 
archaeological objects. Instead, they said at the January meeting they 
offered 'post-war technical and financial assistance', and 'conservation 
support'.



http://www.sundayherald.com/print32895

Note: The ACCP has caused deep unease among archaeologists since its 
creation in 2001. Among its main members are collectors and lawyers with 
chequered histories in collecting valuable artefacts, including alleged 
exhibitions of Nazi loot.




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National museum, home to artifacts dating back thousands of years, 
plundered (Score: 1)
by sv3n (sven at netpimp dot com) on Sunday, April 13 @ 02:05:51 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.newsfrombabylon.com
National museum, home to artifacts dating back thousands of years, 
plundered by looters

by HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
Saturday, April 12, 2003

(04-12) 15:01 PDT BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --

The famed Iraq National Museum, home of extraordinary Babylonian, Sumerian 
and Assyrian collections and rare Islamic texts, sat empty Saturday -- 
except for shattered glass display cases and cracked pottery bowls that 
littered the floor.

In an unchecked frenzy of cultural theft, looters who pillaged government 
buildings and businesses after the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime also 
targeted the museum. Gone were irreplaceable archaeological treasures from 
the Cradle of Civilization.

Everything that could be carried out has disappeared from the museum -- 
gold bowls and drinking cups, ritual masks worn in funerals, elaborately 
wrought headdresses, lyres studded with jewels -- priceless craftsmanship 
from ancient Mesopotamia.

"This is the property of this nation and the treasure of 7,000 years of 
civilization. What does this country think it is doing?" asked Ali Mahmoud, 
a museum employee, futility and frustration in his voice.

Much of the looting occurred Thursday, according to a security guard who 
stood by helplessly as hoards broke into the museum with wheelbarrows and 
carts and stole priceless jewelry, clay tablets and manuscripts.

Left behind were row upon row of empty glass cases -- some smashed up, 
others left intact -- heaps of crumbled pottery and hunks of broken statues 
scattered across the exhibit floors.

Sensing its treasures could be in peril, museum curators secretly removed 
antiquities from their display cases before the war and placed them into 
storage vaults -- but to no avail. The doors of the vaults were opened or 
smashed, and everything was taken, museum workers said.

That lead one museum employee to suspect that others familiar with the 
museum may have participated in the theft.

"The fact that the vaults were opened suggests that employees of the museum 
may have been involved," said the employee, who declined to be identified. 
"To ordinarily people, these are just stones. Only the educated know the 
value of these pieces."

Gordon Newby, a historian and professor of Middle Eastern studies at Emory 
University in Atlanta, said the museum's most famous holding may have been 
tablets with Hammurabi's Code -- one of mankind's earliest codes of law.

It could not be determined whether the tablets were at the museum when the 
war broke out.

Other treasures believed to be housed at the museum -- such as the Ram in 
the Thicket from Ur, a statue representing a deity from 2600 BC -- are no 
doubt gone, perhaps forever, he said.

"This is just one of the most tragic things that could happen for our being 
able to understand the past," Newby said. The looting, he said, "is 
destroying the history of the very people that are there."

John Russell, a professor of art history and archaeology at the 
Massachusetts College of Art, feared for the safety of the staff of Iraq's 
national antiquities department, also housed at the museum; for 
irreplaceable records of every archaeological expedition in Iraq since the 
1930s; for perhaps hundreds of thousands of artifacts from 10,000 years of 
civilization, both on display and in storage.

Among them, he said, was the copper head of an Akkadian king, at least 
4,300 years old. Its eyes were gouged out, nose flattened, ears and beard 
cut off, apparently by subjects who took their revenge on his image -- much 
the same way as Iraqis mutilated statues of Saddam.

"These are the foundational cornerstones of Western civilization," Russell 
said, and are literally priceless -- which he said will not prevent them 
from finding a price on the black market.

Some of the gold artifacts may be melted down, but most pieces will find 
their way into the hands of private collectors, he said.

The chances of recovery are slim; regional museums were looted after the 
1991 Gulf War, and 4,000 pieces were lost.

"I understand three or four have been recovered," he said.

Samuel Paley, a professor of classics at the State University of New York, 
Buffalo, predicted whatever treasures aren't sold will be trashed.

The looters are "people trying to feed themselves," said Paley, who has 
spent years tracking Assyrian reliefs previously looted from Nimrud in 
Northern Iraq. "When they find there's no market, they'll throw them away. 
If there is a market, they'll go into the market."

Koichiro Matsuura, head of the U.N.'s cultural agency, UNESCO, on Saturday 
urged American officials to send troops to protect what was left of the 
museum's collection, and said the military should step in to stop looting 
and destruction at other key archaeological sites and museums.

The governments of Russia, Jordan and Greece also voiced deep concern about 
the looting. Jordan urged the United Nations to take steps to protect 
Iraq's historic sites, a "national treasure for the Iraqi people and an 
invaluable heritage for the Arab and Islamic worlds."

Some blamed the U.S. military, though coalition forces say they have taken 
great pains to avoid damage to cultural and historical sites.

A museum employee, reduced to tears after coming to the museum Saturday and 
finding her office and all administrative offices trashed by looters, said: 
"It is all the fault of the Americans. This is Iraq's civilization. And 
it's all gone now." She refused to give her name.

McGuire Gibson, a University of Chicago professor and president of the 
American Association for Research in Baghdad, was infuriated. He said he 
had been in frequent and frantic touch with U.S. military officials since 
Wednesday, imploring them to send troops "in there and protect that building."

The Americans could have prevented the looting, agreed Patty Gerstenblith, 
a professor at DePaul School of Law in Chicago who helped circulate a 
petition before the war, urging that care be taken to protect Iraqi 
antiquities.

"It was completely inexcusable and avoidable," she said.

The museum itself was battered. Its marble staircase was chipped, likely by 
looters using pushcarts or heavy slabs of wood to carry booty down from the 
second floor. The museum is in the Al-Salhiya neighborhood of Baghdad, with 
its back to a poor neighborhood.

Early Saturday, five armed men showed up at the gate: One was armed with a 
Kalashnikov, three carried pistols, one wielded an iron bar. The man with 
the assault rifle walked into the museum, accused journalists there of 
stealing artifacts and ordered them to leave.

He claimed to be there to protect the museum from plundering. One of the 
men said he was a member of the feared Fedayeen Saddam militia.

"You think Saddam is now gone, so you can do what you like," he raged.



http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/04/
12/international1429EDT0591.DTL


[ Reply to This ]


Mosul descends into chaos as even museum is looted (Score: 1)
by sv3n (sven at netpimp dot com) on Sunday, April 13 @ 02:15:30 EDT
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.newsfrombabylon.com
Mosul descends into chaos as even museum is looted

Luke Harding in Mosul
Saturday April 12, 2003
The Guardian

By the time Asif Mohammed turned up for work yesterday morning, the ancient 
contents of Mosul's museum had vanished. The looters knew what they were 
looking for, and in less than 10 minutes had walked off with several 
million dollars worth of Parthian sculpture.

The 2,000-year-old statue of King Saqnatroq II - one of Iraq's forgotten 
monarchs - had disappeared from its cabinet. Lying on the glass-strewn 
floor were the remains of several mythical birds and an Athenian goddess, 
apparently broken by the looters as they made their escape.

"Iraq has a great history," Mr Mohammed, the museum's curator, said 
yesterday, just hours after Mosul, Iraq's third largest city was officially 
"liberated".

"It's just been wrecked. I'm extremely angry. We used to have American and 
British tourists who visited this museum. I want to know whether the 
Americans accept this."

It was a good question. Unfortunately, as Mosul descended yesterday into a 
hellish self-feeding chaos, there were no American troops to ask.

The Pentagon had earlier promised that thousands of its soldiers would 
secure Mosul - a pleasant city of 1 million on the banks of the Tigris - 
and prevent the kind of mass looting seen elsewhere in Iraq. They would 
also keep out the Kurds.

Since the embarrassing invasion of Kirkuk two days ago by Kurdish 
peshmerga, the White House had been keen to reassure the world - and Turkey 
in particular - that it was in charge of northern Iraq. The Kurds would do 
nothing without US supervision, Washington soothed Ankara.

Yesterday it was abundantly clear this was not true.

A quick tour of central Mosul revealed there were no American troops there 
at all.
Several thousand were stationed just down the road in Irbil, inside 
Kurdish-northern Iraq, but they had failed to arrive.

The Iraqi government abandoned Mosul late on Thursday night. Just as in 
Kirkuk, Iraqi soldiers garrisoned in the city took off their uniforms and 
simply drifted away.
Overnight American special forces entered briefly with groups of Kurdish 
peshmerga. The Americans then disappeared.

By midday yesterday - as Kalashnikov fire echoed around Mosul's looted 
central bank - they still hadn't come back. A huge crowd was trying to help 
itself to piles of Iraqi dinar. Fights were breaking out. Kurdish fighters 
were shooting wildly into the air.
Nearby, looters were ransacking Mosul's former seat of power, its imposing 
governorate building, sending glass cascading into the street.

However, last night a US special operations team met Mosul's tribal and 
community leaders in an attempt to put an end to the unrest. Colonel Walter 
Meyer told the group that US soldiers were being redeployed there from the 
Kurdish cities of Arbil, Dohuk and Akra.

Across the city fires burned from ruined government offices. "I beg you to 
stop these terrible things," Mufti Mohammed, one of Mosul's leading Sunni 
clerics, said yesterday, as dozens of worshippers, furious at the 
self-destruction of their city, poured out of his mosque after Friday 
prayers. "If some kind of order is not restored in the next 24 hours we're 
going to take things into our own hands. We will start up our own armed 
groups to keep the peace."

Mr Mohammed said he had persuaded the Fedayeen and Arab volunteers still in 
the city not to fight coalition soldiers. Now he wished he hadn't bothered. 
"This is anarchy," he said.

Other residents were angry. "Why don't the American troops enter this city? 
I've spent all morning looking for them," said Ali Sahif, a 34-year-old 
engineering student. "Everything is being ripped apart." Mr Sahif said 
looters had wrecked his engineering institute, as well as Mosul University, 
the hospital and the College of Medicine. He now wasn't sure what to do.

Most of the murals of Saddam, meanwhile, had not been damaged or defaced. 
Perhaps people wanted him back, or at least the stability he represented.

Either way, three days after the fall of Baghdad, it was clear that the 
honeymoon between the Iraqi people and their British and American 
liberators was turning sour.

Mosul has traditionally been one of Iraq's most ethnically mixed cities.

Arabs, Syriac people, Armenians, Kurds, Turkomans, Christians and Yazedis 
-an esoteric Muslim sect who refuse to wear blue - all call Mosul home. But 
in the end it was Kurdish fighters who poured into Mosul yesterday, to an 
enthusiastic welcome from the city's Kurds, but a more muted one from 
everyone else.

Their presence in Mosul and Kirkuk has not pleased Turkey, now incandescent 
at the prospect of a vast de facto Kurdish state on its doorstep.

The fighters from the Irbil-based Kurdistan Democratic party had been given 
orders to defend several key buildings, including the Mosul Museum, with 
its priceless Assyrian antiquities. They didn't manage to get there in 
time, although they did secure the natural history museum a short walk away.

ONLY THE KURDS ARE PROTECTING THE ANTIQUITIES

A Kurdish commander, Wahid Majid, proudly showed me the dusty toucans and 
pickled reptiles he had just saved from the mob. The museum's stuffed brown 
bear was still safely in its display case, he pointed out. "We have not 
allowed anybody to take anything. We were told to defend the museum and 
other important establishments."

Had he seen the Americans? "They were here earlier but they were unable to 
control the situation so they left," he said.

On the other bank of the Tigris, looters were demolishing Mosul's only 
five-star hotel, the ziggurat-shaped Nineveh International. It was perhaps 
a legitimate target: until yesterday an entire wing had been reserved for 
senior members of the Ba'ath party.
Most ordinary Iraqis were too scruffy to venture inside, let alone afford 
its £16-a-night rooms.

Yesterday they removed all the hotel's bedding and furniture instead. "It 
is our money. It is our money," 17-year-old Hassan Ali explained. "This 
hotel has been built with money from Iraq's oil. The oil belongs to us. 
That's why we are looting."

To begin with, the mass collective stealing was good-humoured and 
democratic, with all of Mosul's different groups taking part. But as dusk 
set in, the beginnings of what looked like ethnic collapse were all too 
apparent as Kurds and Arabs wrangled about who owned what.

Iraq is a large country with ancient fault lines. Unless coalition forces 
began to restore order it is in danger of disintegrating.

Back at the Mosul Museum, Mr Mohammed sat next to two giant Assyrian winged 
friezes, similar to a pair in the British Museum, themselves looted by 
19th-century British archaeologists from nearby Nineveh. The friezes had 
clearly been too heavy for anybody to cart off.

"I watched Kofi Annan appear on TV," he said. "He said that Iraq had a very 
great history and civilisation. I'm very sad at what has happened here. I 
feel pain in my heart." Mr Mohammed recalled that he had had his photo 
taken with an elderly American tourist who visited.

What did he think of Americans now? "I think George Bush and Tony Blair are 
war criminals."




http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,935267,00.html add your 
own comments






Thanks for posting this. (english)
Yousup Kandinsky 1:57am Sun Apr 13 '03
 comment#311767




It reminds me of a story.

The great French diplomat Talleyrand was speaking about Russia, in the wake 
of Napoleon's conquest of Moscow.


In Russia, we see in the Emperor (Alexander) an extremely cultivated and 
cultured man ruling ruling over a barbaric people. In France, we see the 
reverse.


(I might add, in the US, we see neither. It was rightly observed: the US 
arrival in Baghdad mimicked the arrival of the Monghol destroyers, 
centuries earlier).




http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=311760&group=webcast