War On You: Breaking Alternative News

July 9, 2009

PARIS: Researchers working for the United Nations cultural agency say the US military in Iraq inflicted considerable damage on one of the world’s most important archaeological sites at Babylon.

UNESCO has vowed to make Babylon a World Heritage site to prevent similar vandalism in future wars.

Its ruins, 90 kilometres south of Baghdad, are considered one of the world’s Seven Wonders, and are more than 4000 years old. Soon after the US-led invasion in 2003, the site became military “Camp Alpha”.

The UNESCO report presented yesterday says US troops and contractors dug trenches several hundred metres long through sensitive areas, levelled hilltops and drove heavy vehicles over the fragile paving of once-sacred pathways.

Yesterday the Dutch Government turned over dozens of antiquities stolen from Iraq to Baghdad’s ambassador and urged other countries to clamp down on the illicit trade.

The 69 pieces include cylindrical stone seals more than 4000 years old and a terracotta relief depicting a bearded man praying.

“These things should not be bought and sold,” said Diederik Meijer, an archaeologist with the Dutch National Museum for Antiquities, which will display the treasures before they are returned to Iraq. Dr Meijer declined to put a value on the artefacts, saying it could encourage illegal trade.

Despite efforts to clamp down on the looting of historical sites, such theft is still happening in Iraq. Dr Meijer showed an aerial photo of an official dig surrounded by a landscape pockmarked with illegal excavations.

The Dutch Science Minister, Ronald Plasterk, said the stolen artefacts were surrendered by Dutch art traders after police informed them they were stolen. US customs authorities and Interpol had alerted Dutch officials that the items were being sold in the Netherlands.

Mr Plasterk said the artefacts came from the “cradle of civilisation”, the area between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates once known as Mesopotamia. Among other items Mr Plasterk handed to Iraq’s ambassador, Siamand Banaa, was a fragment of a flagstone with an inscription of King Nebuchadnezzar dating from 570BC.