U.N. Wants Halt to Iraq Pillaging

Newsmax Wires ^ | April 16, 2003

[boknows]

UNITED NATIONS -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, deploring "catastrophic losses to Iraq's cultural heritage," urged coalition forces Tuesday to stop Iraqis from further pillaging and called on neighboring countries and international bodies to prevent trafficking in artifacts stolen from archeological, cultural and religious institutions. His comments were made in a statement issued at U.N. headquarters in New York by a spokeswoman, Hua Jiang, as Annan was arriving in Athens for the European Conference to hold high-level talks on the latest developments in Iraq and as U.N. agencies reported incremental inroads into providing relief in the battle-scarred nation.

"The secretary-general deplores the catastrophic losses to Iraq's cultural heritage that have occurred in recent days and weeks," said Hua. "He urges the Iraqi people to do what they can to restore that invaluable heritage by returning any looted items, and calls on the coalition authorities to act immediately to prevent further losses by protecting Iraq's archaeological and religious sites, museums and other cultural institutions.

"He also joins the director-general of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in calling on the authorities of countries bordering Iraq, international police, customs organizations and leading actors in the art market to join forces with UNESCO in the work to prevent trade in stolen Iraqi objects," she said.

"He notes that Iraq's cultural treasures bear witness to an invaluable legacy for all humanity, and their loss is a wound inflicted on all humankind."

The secretary-general was to begin talks Wednesday with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and the foreign ministers of France, Germany, Russia, Spain and the United Kingdom. Thursday, he was expected to meet with French President Jacques Chirac.

[boknows]

Wow, leave it up to the ever-caring U.N. to take control of the situation.

WMD's for decades? no problem.

An out-of-control dictator killing thousands of his own people? no big deal

Hunger and disease rampant in the streets? must be somewhere else

Stolen artifacts? Now that is deploring

[Steven W.]

Not to mention that the artifacts had been dumped since 1996 and nobody seemed to care about it then. See 1996 NYT article post from SF University on FR last night.

[FreePaul]

Well maybe they should call a meeting and pass a resolution. That should solve the problem.

[COURAGE]

"The United Nations....[is] a place for prostitution under the feet of Americans."

[avg_freeper]

U.N. Wants Halt to Any Iraq Pillaging That They Are Not Profiting From.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

And I want a halt to U.N. pillaging.

Guess which one will stop first?

[Diogenesis]

Forget the tortures, murders, WMD, rapes...

Annan is concerned about purported "looting". What a POS.

[Semper Paratus]

Sadaam and his Tikriti thugs have looted Iraq for decades now they get thet're panties in a twist over a couple of statues and air conditioners.

[Wright is right!]

Kofi has a marvelous sense of timing. First, he waits until all the looting is over, then he issues a call for the looting to stop.

Me? I'm calling on the sun to rise tomorrow. And if it does, I want all of you to be sure and give me credit for it.

Michael

[Mark Felton]

Hey there's some pretty neat stuff at the UN.

Maybe somebody will organize a UN looting party here in New York.

[Bobber58]

"The secretary-general deplores the catastrophic losses to Iraq's cultural heritage that have occurred in recent days and weeks,without the U.N. getting its normal cut of the action." said Hua. "He urges the Iraqi people to do what they can to restore that invaluable income by returning any looted items to the local U.N. embassy, and calls on the coalition authorities to act immediately to prevent further losses by allowing U.N. antiquities inspectors into Iraq's archaeological and religious sites, museums and other cultural institutions.

what CNN didn't report. :)

[m1-lightning]

Kofi forgets that Clinton no longer dictates military authority.

[MeekOneGOP]

hehe ! Great animation.

[COURAGE]

"Bush, Blair and Rumsfeld. They are the funny trio"

[Howlin]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/894176/posts

[Howlin]

Hurt by Sanctions

They found TWO MILLION dollars worth of medicine hoarded in ONE of Saddam's palaces, not to mention the 34 palaces themselves, while the people of Iraq starved.

How was this OUR fault?

[Reagan Man]

This is what Kofi Annan is concerned about. As usual, his priorities are wrong. So what else is new?

[swheats]

Wow, leave it up to the ever-caring U.N. to take control of the situation. WMD's for decades? no problem.

An out-of-control dictator killing thousands of his own people? no big deal

Hunger and disease rampant in the streets? must be somewhere else

Stolen artifacts? Now that is deploring

Also years of illegal oil transfers to Syria...no problem.

[Howlin]

Can't you just see him and his minions, sitting in his office in New York City, desperately trying to find ANYTHING to issue a press release about to try to get into the game?

[DannyTN]

I want an end to the UN pillaging of Iraqi Oil. The UN gets 7% of the top in oil revenues in the Oil for Food program. No wonder they were anxious to reinstate the program once the US took over.