$100m fund set up to save heritage sites

Representatives of around 40 countries on Saturday approved plans to establish a fund to protect heritage sites in war zones and a network of safe havens for endangered artworks. 
The fund, announced at an Abu Dhabi conference attended by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and President Francois Hollande, will be used to create “safe havens” for endangered artifacts and to transport and restore monuments damaged by war, UAE state news agency WAM reported.
“Conflict causes irreparable damage to valuable heritage sites in Syria, Iraq, Mali and many others,” WAM quoted Mohammed Al-Mubarak, chairman of Abu Dhabi’s tourism and culture authority, as saying.
“Today, we establish a $100 million fund to focus on protecting and rebuilding these sites.” The statement did not provide further details.
France and the UAE launched the fund to protect heritage sites threatened by extremism and conflict after the destruction last month of an ancient palace by Daesh militants in Iraq.
“This fanaticism is an attack on civilizations and thus on the unity of the human species,” Hollande told the UNESCO conference, referring to Daesh in Iraq and Syria.
Hollande also rebuked Syrian authorities for destroying Syria’s diverse cultural heritage.
“In Aleppo, those who have chosen to unleash violence kill the Syrian people twice over — in the flesh with the bombing raids and the massacres which are taking place and in memory by (destroying) the most prestigious objects of humanity,” he said.
France and the UAE are part of a US-led international military coalition fighting Daesh militants in Iraq and Syria and say they want to protect artifacts threatened by airstrikes, smugglers and militant groups.
Daesh fighters last year dynamited several monuments including the Baal Shamin temple in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra, an act the UN cultural agency UNESCO called a war crime.
Roman-era temples in Syria, museums in Iraq and ancient stucco buildings in medieval Yemeni ports have been marred by wars that have swept the region since 2011. The world watched in dismay as the militants systematically destroyed temples and tower tombs in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra last year.
In Iraq, videos showed Daesh using bulldozers and explosives to destroy Nimrud, a jewel of the Assyrian empire, and ransacking medieval treasures in the Mosul Museum.
But proposals for ancient artifacts to be taken abroad for safekeeping met with reservations from some countries — notably Greece and Egypt — which saw treasured artworks removed for display in museums in Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Participants in the meeting, who also included representatives of international organizations and private institutions, pledged “to safeguard the endangered cultural heritage of all peoples, against its destruction and illicit trafficking.”

Source: Arab News