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UNESCO to Sponsor Second Assessment Mission to IraqUNESCO Inspector General Koïchiro Matsuura has announced that a second expert mission left for Iraq June 28 to continue assessing the destruction of cultural heritage suffered during the U.S. military takeover in April. The team includes specialists from museums, archives, and libraries, along with other experts on monuments and archeological sites.Leading the delegation of representatives from Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the Netherlands is Mounir Bouchenaki, UNESCO assistant director general for culture. Bouchenaki led an earlier mission, which visited Iraq May 15–20 and raised a controversy when the sole librarian on the team, Jean-Marie Arnoult of France, was denied a visa because his country had opposed the war in Iraq. Arnoult is a member of the second mission. An inventory for the Baghdad Museum and the fine-tuning of an action plan to restore the principal cultural institutions of the city were among the objectives of the first mission, but a report on its findings has not yet been issued. Investigations into the destruction of cultural heritage in Iraq are also being conducted by other organizations in the United States and Europe, including the Oriental Institute in Chicago, the University of Pennsylvania, Interpol, and the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions. In a June 19 letter from the U.S. National Security Council to IFLA Secretary General and International Committee of the Blue Shield President Ross Shimmon, Shirin R. Tahir-Kheli said the U.S. “will work with Iraqis to recover missing artifacts as well as to restore the underlying infrastructure in museums, libraries, and other culturally significant sites.” The special assistant to President Bush for democracy, human rights, and international operations promised to work with UNESCO, coalition partners, and Italian Ambassador Pietro Cordone, who is serving as senior advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Culture. Posted July 3, 2003. |
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