The
Guardian broke a major news story Saturday regarding the British Museum's
Curtis Report of alarming damage to critical archaeological remains of the ancient Iraqi city of Babylon, under military occupation by U.S. and Polish forces.
Implications are that President George W. Bush, the U.S. Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld may be guilty of having violated the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.
Today the Polish Defense Ministry responded:
Polish military deny damaging Babylon
Sun Jan 16, 2005 12:53 PM GMT
WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's Defence Ministry has denied charges that Polish troops in Iraq had damaged the site of ancient Babylon, one of the world's most famous archaeological treasures, while using it as a military base.
"Neither Polish troops, nor any other troops under Polish command, ever carried out any projects violating historical monuments or causing their devastation," Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Piotr Pertek said on Sunday.
(story and commentary continue below the fold)
"Our soldiers never engaged in any efforts to strengthen the security of Camp Babylon without consulting Iraq's monument preservation authorities."
The statement followed a British Museum report alleging that U.S. and Polish troops had caused "substantial damage" to the ancient city during their combined 21-month occupation of the site.
U.S. military commanders set up a base in Babylon in April 2003, shortly after toppling Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, and handed it over to a 2,500-strong Polish military contingent five months later.
The Polish-led force occupied the base for about 16 months until handing it over to Iraqi authorities at the weekend.
The British Museum report said U.S. and Polish military vehicles had crushed 2,600-year-old pavements in the city, a cradle of civilisation. Archaeological fragments had been used to fill sand bags, and people had apparently tried to gouge out the decorated bricks forming the famous dragons of the Ishtar Gate.
U.S. BASE ROUND STONEHENGE?
"This is tantamount to establishing a military camp around the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in Britain," John Curtis, keeper of the museum's Ancient and Near East Department, said in the report.
Curtis was invited to visit Babylon and draw up the report by Iraqi antiquities experts.
"We have moved our operations from camp Babylon and returned that site to the Iraqi people and to scientists because of its importance, not only to Iraq, but to the world's cultural heritage," a spokesman for the Polish-led force said on Saturday.
"We realised the existence of a military base there was not beneficial to that site and when an opportunity of moving to a new camp arose we decided to move," Lieutenant Colonel Artur Domanski said.
Once known for its splendid Hanging Gardens, Babylon was the capital of Babylonia, an advanced ancient civilisation that existed from about 1800 to 600 BC.
In the report, Curtis described the decision to set up a base in the area as "regrettable".
"Babylon is one of the most important archaeological sites in the world and the damage caused by the military camp is a further blow for the cultural heritage of Iraq," he said.
The Iraqi government should be urged to put Babylon forward for inclusion in the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's (UNESCO's) list of World Heritage Sites as soon as possible, Curtis said.
"Now, more than ever, Babylon needs the care, attention and advice that being a World Heritage Site would ensure it received," he said.
Both U.S. and Polish troops have occupied this world cultural heritage site since 2003, having established a military base here. Babylon is approximately 70 miles south of Baghdad. According to the Curtis report, the site was under U.S. command in April, 2003; command was turned over to Polish troops in September, 2003, though Polish troops were present prior to that September.
Handover of control from Polish command to the State Board of Antiquities and Heritage in the Iraqi Ministry of Culture was to occur yesterday, January 15, 2005.
The Polish response, interestingly, occured just days after news broke that Poland plans to cut troops in Iraq to 1,700 from 2,500 in February should Jan. 30 elections in the Arab country pass successfully.
Please see the two previous diaries in this series for more background:
Babylon I: U.S. war violates Hague Convention; Babylon ruins ruined
Babylon II: The Curtis Report on damage to Babylon