Looters Ransack Baghdad's Antiquities Museum

Reuters ^ | April 12, 2003 | Hassan Hafidh

[kalt]

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Looters have sacked Baghdad's antiquities museum, plundering treasures dating back thousands of years to the dawn of civilization in Mesopotamia, museum staff said on Saturday.

They blamed U.S. troops for not protecting the treasures.

Surveying the littered glass wreckage of display cases and pottery shards at the Iraqi National Museum on Saturday, deputy director Nabhal Amin wept and told Reuters: "They have looted or destroyed 170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years...They were worth billions of dollars."

She blamed U.S. troops, who have controlled Baghdad since the collapse of President Saddam Hussein's rule on Wednesday, for failing to heed appeals from museum staff to protect it from looters who moved in to the building on Friday.

"The Americans were supposed to protect the museum. If they had just one tank and two soldiers nothing like this would have happened," she said. "I hold the American troops responsible for what happened to this museum."

The looters broke into rooms that were built like bank vaults with huge steel doors. The museum grounds were full of smashed doors, windows and littered with office paperwork and books.

"We know people are hungry but what are they going to do with these antiquities," said Muhsen Kadhim, a museum guard for the last 30 years but who said he was overwhelmed by the number of looters.

"As soon as I saw the American troops near the museum, I asked them to protect it but the second day looters came and robbed or destroyed all the antiquities," he said.

ARMED GUARDS

Amin told four of the museum guards to carry guns and protect what remained.

Some of the museum's artifacts had been moved into storage to avoid a repeat of damage to other antiquities during the 1991 Gulf War.

It houses items from ancient Babylon and Nineveh, Sumerian statues, Assyrian reliefs and 5,000-year-old tablets bearing some of the earliest known writing. There are also gold and silver helmets and cups from the Ur cemetery.

The museum was only opened to the public six months ago after shutting down at the beginning of the 1991 Gulf War. It survived air strikes on Baghdad in 1991 and again was almost unscathed by attacks on the capital by U.S.-led forces.

Iraq, a cradle of civilization long before the empires of Egypt, Greece or Rome, was home to dynasties that created agriculture and writing and built the cities of Nineveh, Nimrud and Babylon -- site of Nebuchadnezzar's Hanging Gardens.

[syriacus]

I'm not sure if it's totally our fault, however, what did we think would happen when all the law was gone?

Baghdad fell much more quickly than most people expected and most observers had to guess in which day and hour the coalition had won the city. I don't blame the coalition for being unable to keep up with the astounding speed with which the capital (and other areas) fell.

The coalition forces couldn't really say to the Iraqi soldiers,

• "Please wait a day or two, before you abandon defense of the city"
  and
• "Please clearly announce your moment of surrender so we know when we can assume command"

[virgil]

I have doubts about this story. We keep hearing about how the Iraqi resistance just "melted away". I think that some of them are still in town ready to foment discontent at every opportunity.

[DensaMensa]

While clearly an unhappy loss,(their fault) most or all of this stuff was well photographed and documented and it's value to history probably not lost. It would have been FAR worse if we had been forced to engage in a serious (nuclear) war which destroyed the vast unexplored regions of Iraq where new secrets lie undisturbed.

[Fifth Business]

If we have special forces to protect oil fields, we could have protected this museum in a similar fashion. If the story is true, it is catastrophic for study of near-eastern and world history.

[mewzilla]

How does anyone know whether Saddamn and his cronies didn't loot it?

[JoeSchem]

We had a sound overall strategy, but apparently we're missing on a few cylinders below the Tommy Franks level. I place this political blunder alongside the failure to immediately implement remote-controlled, suicide-bomber-proof checkpoints.

[Fifth Business]

While clearly an unhappy loss,(their fault) most or all of this stuff was well photographed and documented and it's value to history probably not lost.

First of all, I doubt every item was photographed. Second, working from a photograph of a tablet is not nearly as good as working from the tablet. With a photograph, you are limited to detecting cuneiform impressions from the way the light of the camera hits the tablet. Working with the actual tablet allows one to turn the tablet in different ways to get details. It's just not the same. I hope this story is wrong.

[syriacus]

Would it help her gain perspective to be called scum by us?

I didn't notice that she was called scum. I did notice posters writing that maybe she was just as much to blame as she says the coalition is to blame.

As you said, maturity is important. Whoever investigates the facts will probably be mature.

The outcome of any official investigation should be interesting.

[Fifth Business]

How does anyone know whether Saddamn and his cronies didn't loot it?

No matter who looted it, it is a terrible loss (assuming the story is true). And it was preventable. It's a huge blunder.

[Risa]

>>I said it before and I'll say it again. Our troops have more urgent, pressing, and compelling business than trying to protect every part of Iraqi culture/infrastrcucture. <<

I agree with you, wholeheartedly.

All we know is that our troops and their commanders face a chaotic, hell of unmitigated danger, where pockets of the enemy can be anywhere, not easily distinguished, and ready to blow themselves up, individually, in our troops' faces,
the moment they let down their guard.

We also know that the Iraqi people who loot have been oppressed and brutalized for decades, and that our relationship with them is precarious, and must be managed with care, because they've been indoctrinated against us.

To suggest that we know better how our troops should be deployed in that city, how they should or should not manage the Iraqi people, or to criticise U.S. military strategy, when we have no military education or experience, no knowledge of Baghdad or the psychology of mobs or the numerous other variables that come into play ....seems to my mind frighteningly arrogant.




risa

[syriacus]

If the story is true, it is catastrophic for study of near-eastern and world history.

Too bad the French and German antiquarians weren't along for the ride to Baghdad (with troops from their countries, of course). We could have used their help.

I doubt the items are lost or destroyed. They are valuable. They'll most likely show up.

Maybe an investigation will have to come first. But, that's okay.

It's more important to assign the (finite number of) soldiers to protect people's lives and the records of Saddam's regime.

Historians would have a wonderful time in Saddam's archives.

[Orlando]

The secret texts of past civilisation, the texts of Eden
,the Watchers,Nephilim, and of gods from the heavens,etc..
The list is endless,...ALL GONE !!!!
This should of been Protected, it's the HISTORY of HUMANKIND!
The Texts of our Past...(ALL of US)..GONE !!
Destroyed, ..

[aquila48]

All this looting and vandalism of national institutions... it's very reminiscent of the way the Clintonians sacked the White House on their way out...

[Drango]

The secret texts of past civilisation, the texts of Eden ,the Watchers,Nephilim, and of gods from the heavens,etc.. The list is endless,...ALL GONE !!!! This should of been Protected, it's the HISTORY of HUMANKIND! The Texts of our Past...(ALL of US)..GONE !! Destroyed, ..

First of all welcome to FreeRepublic. How many lives should be expended to save this valuable "stuff"? One Marine? A hundred Iraqis? Two hundred? Five Hundred? Is it more important to save the oil wells or is the "stuff" more important? Please advise.

NO BLOOD FOR ARCHEOLOGY

[Risa]

>>it's very reminiscent of the way the Clintonians sacked the White House on their way out...<<

Haha! Yes!

risa

[Fifth Business]

It's more important to assign the (finite number of) soldiers to protect people's lives and the records of Saddam's regime.

I appreciate the sentiment, but we have troops guarding oil fields and hospitals. If we can spare troops for that, we could have spared them to protect Iraq's heritage and cultural treasure. Once again, my comments should be understood as assuming these initial reports to be true. I have some doubt and hope that they are not.

[abner]

"They have looted or destroyed 170,000 items of antiquity dating back thousands of years...They were worth billions of dollars

170,000 items. Does that include every catalogued shard? This is horrible. But lets think about this for a moment or two. 170,000 items and an administrator that worked there for 30 years. How does one work for Saddam for 30 years and live? I bet the place was pre emptied and then all the cases were broken. Why would looters not take the cases?

Just some questions that need to be answered.

[Fifth Business]

I bet the place was pre emptied and then all the cases were broken. Why would looters not take the cases? I hope you are right and this is just more regime trickery.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

We are both with you.. this is very unfortunate.

The responsibility rests with the Iraqi's who stole these treasures. But they won't be sold easily. I'm sure there are pictures of what was there, and any attempt worldwide to sell them will be thwarted.

Kind of like the Rembrandts that are missing. The people who stole them, will never profit from them. Not in this life.

Perhaps, God willing, they will be returned.

One can only hope.

I cannot blame our troops, they have had more important things on thier plates. But it is unfortunate.

[DensaMensa]

}Second, working from a photograph of a tablet is not nearly as good as working from the tablet.

No doubt that's true at the research level. For the rest of us, the most we will ever see is a photo and read an analysis. Almost makes you wonder if the bad guys didn't set up this huge (and irresponsible) loss just to blame us, doesn't it?