Posted on 04/12/2003 7:05:07 AM PDT by 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.
All very reasonable to be sure. But the people who are against the war and Bush are going to run with this. Imagine if there were headlines that said. "Troops stand guard at Museum, irreplaceable artifacts in safe hands." After all the trouble we've gone to win hearts and minds we should have thought of this.
The really important items were, or should have been, secured well before the war began. And don't tell me the looters broke into the vault. The Iraquis couldn't even get a statue knocked down.
No, the 'priceless' items were disappearing long before the action started. Many were probably replaced by Made in China items. This woman is covering her you know what.
Very true... There are many who would love to continue to say the sky is falling every time this is not smooth, every time we don't have instant complete contentment among every Iraqi interviewed. This is much more complex than a few angry words over relics, or a few bumps in the road. There will be many more bumps in the road. We just have to keep ahold of the hot coffee, and not blow up every time some gets spilled. It only stings for a second.
Perhaps they weighed the political fallout of making thousands of arrests, and avoiding the conflicts and shootings that would occur trying to stop the looting. This loss, we can survive. The other, maybe not.
Huh?
Arabs loot an arab museum, but she holds our troops responsible? The article title is correct: Looters Ransack Baghdad's Antiquities Museum, not Americans. There isn't anything there worth a single American life.
The US bombing and ground troops didn't cost thousands of Iraqi civilian lives. They cost thousands of Iraqi soldiers' lives. Civilians killed by coalition troops are probably in the hundreds, not the thousands.
Is this more than the Iraqi regime killed in a bad month last year? I doubt it.
Maybe we should have stolen the stuff and brought it here for "protection." "To the victor..." as Andy Jackson said. But I don't guess they'd have liked that either.
Then again, why should we believe her claims? Maybe she "deassioned" the items prior to our arrival. Artworks are bulky but liquid currency if you know where to fence them. Former high level public officials would probably know where to go, or have friends who did.
Sorry, it's not our problem. They've got oil, they can buy them back. Or else go dig up some more.
It is sad, but maybe they can appeal to the public to return things in the spirit of the country of IRAQ, making clear that those things had nothing to do with Sadaam.
Looters have sacked .... They blamed U.S. troops for not protecting the treasuresHey US, make me stop before I loot again ?
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