e_Paper 1-12-2016

10
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2016
DT
World
Gulf gathering aims to protect endangered heritage
• AFP, Abu Dhabi
Experts and government delegates
from around the world
will gather in the Gulf on Friday,
seeking to build a global
alliance to protect cultural
heritage threatened by extremism
and conflict.
The “Safeguarding Endangered
Cultural Heritage”
conference is an initiative
by Sheikh Mohammed bin
Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu
Dhabi and Deputy Supreme
Commander of the Armed
Forces, and French President
Francois Hollande. It will be
held under the patronage of
the United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural
Organisation (Unesco) at the
Emirates Palace.
France and the United
Arab Emirates are leading
the initiative at a conference
in Abu Dhabi to establish an
international partnership
that could respond to dangers
such as Islamic State
group jihadists rampaging
through ancient sites in Iraq
and Syria.
Appalling footage of IS
using sledgehammers, bulldozers
and explosives to
erase ancient cultural sites –
some of them millennia-old
– that they deemed un-Islamic
have spurred the calls
for action.
The proposed partnership
would include governments,
public institutions, private
groups, non-governmental
CULTURAL SITES DESTROYED BY JIHADISTS
Libya
Mausoleums
2012-2013
Islamist
extremists
ALGIERS
Algeria
Marabout
sanctuaries
1990s
Islamist groups
BAMAKO
Timbuktu
Syria
Temple of Bel
Islamic State
(IS) group
TRIPOLI
Zliten
Misrata
Mali
Mausoleums
2012
Ansar Dine
Iraq
Museum
IS group
SYRIA
IRAQ
Palmyra
JORDAN
Afghanistan
Giant
Buddhas
200 1
Taliban
Bamiyan
TURKEY
Tal Afar
Mosul
Tal Ajaja
Apamea
Dura
Nimrud
Europos
Hatra
LEB.
DAMASCUS
BAGHDAD
KABUL
1,000 km
IRAN
100 km
Source: maps4news.com/©HERE
Archaeological treasures destroyed because Islamists
considered them “anti-Islamic” or “idolatrous”
organisations and experts.
The gathering will include
French President Francois Hollande,
Abu Dhabi Crown Prince
Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed
al-Nahyan, Unesco director Irina
Bokova and representatives
of some 40 nations.
It comes “in response to
the growing threats to some
of the world’s most important
cultural resources arising from
sustained periods of armed
conflicts, acts of terrorism and
illicit trafficking of cultural
property”, organisers said.
The United Nations Educational,
Scientific and Cultural
Organisation says that 55 out
of a total of 1,052 heritage
sites around the world are
now listed as World Heritage
in Danger.
Round-table forums will focus
on three themes – prevention,
emergency protection and
post-conflict rehabilitation.
The conference aims to
create an international Geneva-based
fund of $100m, according
to French authorities
behind the initiative.
‘Refuge zones’ for art
France and the United Arab
Emirates will be key contributors
to the fund that would help
cover the cost of transporting,
safeguarding and restoring affected
monuments – including
using 3D reconstruction.
France will contribute $30m
to the fund, former culture
minister Jack Lang, who heads
the Paris-based Institut du
Monde Arabe, said on Tuesday.
Another aim is to establish
“refuge zones” around the
globe for endangered works of
art, a source close to organisers
said.
“Just as there is a right
for asylum (for refugees)...
we should also have asylum
rights for artefacts,” Hollande
said in an address at the Metropolitan
Museum in New
York in September.
On November 1, he announced
a safekeeping facility
due to open in northern France
in 2019, which in addition to
housing the Louvre Museum’s
stored collection, could also
be a refuge for endangered artworks.
The facility will have “another
role, sadly linked to the
events, dramas and tragedies
which may unfold in the
world, wherever works of art
are in danger because terrorists,
because barbarians have
decided to destroy them...
(especially) in Syria and Iraq,”
Hollande said.
He said France will make
the proposal during the Abu
Dhabi conference.
The Louvre Abu Dhabi,
whose delayed opening is now
expected in 2017, “could also
become a refuge zone” for endangered
artefacts, a French
official said.
How to safeguard works
of arts would depend on the
governments of the countries
involved, but the UN Security
Council could be drawn in to
establish general guidelines
based on international law,
French officials say.
Mali President Ibrahim
Boubacar Keita and Afghanistan’s
Ashraf Ghani are expected
to be among the heads
of state attending the two-day
conference. Both their countries
have seen cultural heritage
destroyed by extremist
Islamists.
Oil-rich Abu Dhabi is investing
billions of dollars to
establish a thriving cultural
scene with several museums
including a branch of the Guggenheim,
as well as the Louvre
Abu Dhabi.
The UAE, considered less
conservative compared with
its Gulf peers, applies a zero-tolerance
approach towards
radical Islamism. •