Murder of a magnificent legacy

It is much worse than the conscious destruction of the Bamiyan statue by the Taliban. At least the destruction of the Buddha statues had a story behind it.

Those who were familiar with the fanatic regime of the Taliban were not shocked by that story. They knew the Taliban was capable of destroying the past. They knew history was cheap for those narrow-minded fanatics. In this case we will never know who exactly authored the destruction of Iraq’s antique treasures.

Who are these people? What will they do with these ancient artifacts? The term ‘looter’ only trivialises the magnitude of the loss. It also creates images of destruction by an irrational mob. It de-personalises the people and turns them into an undefined collectivity much like the mob in a riot.

Managing ancient artifacts and cultural heritage is difficult enough in normal circumstances and Iraq had witnessed almost two decades of political chaos. After the war and the heavy bombardment that followed Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait, there was considerable damage to the monuments.

Iraq’s General Directorate of Antiquities reported that 13 museums were seriously damaged in the war. In 1994, experts from all over the world expressed their grief when they found out that close to 3,500 artifacts had found their way out of the country.

The coalition forces led by the US cannot simply wash their hands of this tragedy. After the collapse of law and order accompanied by the massive looting in the cities they should have posted some security personnel around the Baghdad Museum. Even before the war there should have been an implicit understand regarding the protection of these monuments.

All this shows a total disregard for the past. What happened to Iraq’s museums must now be a lesson to the world. There must be a general realisation, between the warring sides and society at large, that museums and other important historic sites must be specially protected in a war-like situation so that history does not become the casualty of our present conflicts.