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.

[cgbg]

After most wars the troops of the victorious side would have looted the museum and returned the treasure to their home country and put a bullet hole in the head of the museum director.

This woman should count her blessings.

The treasures remain in country and will help to jump-start the economy when they are sold. ;-)

[Physicist]

This seems unfortunate.

Unfortunate? It's a damned tragedy. Securing that site should have been one of our very top priorities. Mesopotamian antiquities will be the top moneymaker for Iraq, after oil. Many of the oil fields we risked lives to protect were far less important and valuable than this.

[mtbopfuyn]

Yes, it is a shame they don't have much respect for their history, though I am leary of some of the story. It's hard to believe the Iraqis slapped their slippers on the vaults and they magically opened. If any museum should be looted it's that one SH has pictures of himself covering every square inch.

I also felt SH's yacht shouldn't have been destroyed as it could have been sold with the proceeds going for reconstruction. The palaces looked as if much had previously been removed, but what is left in the main one could be given back to the people as a museum so they don't forget SH's greed. Keep some torture chambers and bunkers for the same reason. Some smaller palaces could be sold again for reconstruction and/or converted into universities or some such.

[solzhenitsyn]

This is a huge shame. If Turkey hadn't prevented our 4th Infantry Division from entering Iraq from the north, we could have defeated Saddam even earlier, and we could have the manpower in place to maintain order in the cities. Apparently, it was worth the loss of six billion dollars to the Turks to see more Americans and Iraqis die, and to see Iraq's cities trashed.

[Theresa]

"In any event I'm not particularly bothered by this. "

I am. This is terrible. We should have had people there guarding it. This was a USA screw up. And I AM mad about it.

[Theresa]

"While it is indeed unfortunate that your stuff was looted and the losses are in the Billions, it is not worth the loss of a single US Military person."

It it doubtful that sending over a tank and a few soldiers would have put the whole war in jeopardy. They should have planned to guard this museum from the get go. This is a loss of the culture and history of the people of Iraq and of the world. Don't try to gloss it over. We screwed up.

[FITZ]

Of course the criminals are the looters, not us, but it is still, as said above, unfortunate.

That's an important point ---the Iraqis themselves are the ones destroying their museum. It might even look bad if we killed any Iraqis in trying to protect their history and culture for them.

[solzhenitsyn]

We'll never be able to quantify the full cost of Turkey's backstabbing. Certainly this destruction in the cities will drive up the cost of rebuilding, and if there were civil order in Iraq right now, America's stock would be much higher in the Arab world, where we're trying to influence a move toward democracy. By keeping the 4ID out of the battle for so long, Turkey has done both America and their neighbor, Iraq, enormous and incalculable harm. I have no ill-will toward the people of Turkey, but I hope that their government's actions will have consequences for the Turkish economy that will cause them to understand that it does not pay to do as they have done.

[Theresa]

"but the liberals will scream bloody murder now that a bunch of old vases have been stolen by the starving masses."

Wrong! I am a 100% right wing conservative and I think this is a terrible shame. We should have planned to guard this museum. How many soldiers would it have taken? This makes us look sloppy and disorganized. Come to think of it I am getting impatient for the US to get going on stopping the looting. It's starting to make us look bad that we are not doing anything.

[Theresa]

"The treasures remain in country and will help to jump-start the economy when they are sold. ;-)"

Maybe they can offer amnesty to those who stole it so they will bring it back. Also they can do sting operations pretending to want to buy it on the black market and then nab the sellers. I hope they can get some of it back. Terrible shame.

[Jack Black]

"Ever since Gulf War 1, the totalitarian-left dominated Cultural Anthropology establishment in the United States has cited possible damage to antiquities as a reason for avoiding any kind of decisive action against the Saddam regime. This has been a regular and very shrill theme in Archeology magazine and many others.

As you sow, so shall you reap. The archeologists made peace with Saddam, as did the anthropologists and academics of all sorts. Now, the oppressed millions are having none of it. They know perfectly well this museum was a *part* of the oppressive structure that sat over them. I'm sure Saddam's people had receptions there, and it was full of French academics sorting their pottery shards. Screw them. I fully support the looting of this museum. The antiquities will reappear on the free market and find new homes in time.

[Eastbound]

"This really upsets me. This museum was the ONLY reason I would have ever wanted to visit a free Iraq."

Ditto, Ditter.

The headline should have been,

"Bedouins Burn More Ancient Scrolls to Heat Tea."

[Asher]

I agree totally with you both. I simply cannot understand what the U.S. was thinking about. This has nothing to do with what Iraq did in Kuwait or any other crime committed by Saddam's regime. It does have to do with upholding the good name of America. The allies were meant to be bringing prosperity and democracy to the downtrodden people and not anarchy and the looting of national treasures and hard-won private property.

The U.S. forces were the only authority able to protect the people of Iraq and they failed them. As the man said, a few bullets would have put paid instantly to the lawlessness.

This is a serious blot on an otherwise brilliantly planned and bravely fought campaign. Shame on those who allowed it to happen.

[x1stcav]

"This was a USA screw up"

Pardon me for pointing out the obvious but this is a vary narrow-minded, clueless, comment.

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.

If you're going to be annoyed, be annoyed at the museum staff for not taking precuations to protect the valuable property they were charged with.

[WOSG]

Saddam Fedayeen killed a marine guarding a hospital yesterday ... we cant win.

What we need are a LOT of MPs, troops on the ground *and* local Iraqi policement to get a hold of the situation. It's unfair to blame the Americans alone, I dont see any Americans looting, it's Baghdad residents ... but we will get blamed for things when life goes imperfectly.

[Risa]

>>Now, Iraqis are free and Iraqi treasures are no more. There's something biblical about this.<<

Yes, biblical and poetic justice.


risa

[Fifth Business]

I agree with you. If this story is true, it is extremely unfortunate. But let's see how much truth there is to the story.

[FITZ]

They probably can buy some of the artifacts back ---but in a way I can see a problem ---how many can we shoot to save their artifacts? It could be difficult for us either way ---it's really too bad they themselves don't respect their museum more.

[alrea]

check ebay for some cool stuff now

[HairOfTheDog]

Shame on them? - Really? - Come on.... There are wins and losses, there is no shame to be placed for not being at the right place at the right time with the perfect magic potion to prevent a bit of looting. Stolen vases makes people sad. Beginning to shoot looting civillians who both outnumber us and whom we don't want to be at war with makes people mad. Looting mobs is far less damaging than angry mobs, when the anger can easily turn on us.