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Stollen Art Buyers Funding Terrorists
By SOPHIE NICHOLSON, Associated Press Writer
PARIS - Wealthy art patrons are buying stolen artifacts
from Iraq and inadvertently funding terrorist activity, the director
of Iraq's national Museum said Thursday. Some of the objects
are entering the U.S., he said.
Iraqi museums were pillaged of treasures dating back 5,000
years during looting that occurred amid the chaos of the 2003
U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.
"Rich people are buying stolen material," museum
director Donny George told reporters. "Money is going to
Iraq and they (terror groups) are buying weapons and ammunition
to use against Iraqi police and American forces," he said.
Police in the United States are doing an "excellent"
job of curbing the flow of stolen artifacts there, but "a
lot of material is just penetrating the country," George
said. "A lot of these objects are actually going to the
United States."
"People in the international community must stop
buying these things ... This money is going to the terrorists,"
he said at a UNESCO conference on Iraq's cultural heritage.
Iraqi Culture Minister Nouri Farhan al-Rawi, also speaking
at the news conference, noted: "There was a great deal of
looting when coalition forces arrived. Today, coalition forces
are helping us a lot, and there are no more cases of looting
or theft."
Of the 15,000 objects stolen from the national museum,
almost 4,000 have been returned to the country and more than
4,000 others are in neighboring countries for safekeeping, George
said.
It is impossible to assess the scale of theft or damage
at archaeological sites outside Baghdad, said a committee of
experts gathered at UNESCO, the Paris-based U.N. cultural agency.
Farhan al-Rawi urged UNESCO to help the Iraqi government
transform 170 buildings - including Saddam's former palaces and
other government buildings - into cultural centers, public libraries
and tourist centers. Some are located in Baghdad's heavily fortified
Green Zone, which houses the Iraqi government and U.S. Embassy.
"Today, the Ministry of Culture is not in a position
to recuperate and run the palaces," said Farhan al-Rawi,
noting that guards outside the national museum were sometimes
shot at.
The committee praised efforts by several countries holding
Iraqi treasures for safekeeping, including Jordan, Kuwait, Syria,
Italy, Saudi Arabia and the United States. But it said more cooperation
was needed from Turkey and Iran, which were represented at the
meeting.
The cultural heritage committee, formed in September 2003,
aims to distribute international aid to help protect Iraq's cultural
treasures.
It has received $3.5 million from direct contributions
and $5.5 million from the United Nations, said UNESCO's deputy
director-general for culture, Mounir Bouchenaki.
UNESCO's World Monuments Fund this week placed the entire
country of Iraq on the list of the world's most endangered cultural
sites. It was the first time an entire country has been listed.
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