The Public Policy Committee has been discussing the war in Iraq with the
goal of defining the relevant concerns of art librarians and identifying
possible responses. The recent looting of the the National Museum and the
destruction of the National Library make this now an even more immediate
concern.
>
>
At the conference in Baltimore we recommended that the Executive Board
adopt the statement made recently by College Art Association (CAA)
expressing their concern about the war and its potential impact on Iraq's
cultural property. (See their statement at
http://www.collegeart.org/caa/news/2003/march03press.html.) The EB
declined this action, partly because the wording was out of date by that
time, and did not directly address the Society's specific interests.
>
>
A similar statement was more recently made by the American Association of
Museums (AAM), joining with ICOM and UNESCO. See the April issue of
"Aviso" and
http://www.unesco.org/culture/legalprotection/war/html_eng/index_en.shtml.
The Archaeological Institute of America has posted their "Open Declaration
on Cultural Heritage at Risk in Iraq" at http://www.archaeological.org/.
Additional signatories include CAA and several specialized research
institutes (as well as many individual archaeologists and art historians).
Perhaps it would be appropriate for ARLIS/NA to be included there?
We feel that these concerns are directly relevant to ARLIS/NA's
committment to the preservation and documentation of the world's cultural
heritage. The Public Policy Committee will be contacting these
organizations about the possibility of coordinated action. At this time,
we are eager to hear from more ARLIS members about recommended action and
statements, or additional news or background info (eg on the 1954 Hague
Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed
Conflict, or other relevant treaties and diplomatic accords).
Given Secretary Powell's comments this morning, perhaps we should also
consider if ARLIS/NA and other US libraries and professional associations
are in a position to provide concrete assistance to the Iraqis, as the AIA
offered to do.
James Mitchell and Vanessa Kam
Co-Chairs, ARLIS/NA Public Policy Committee
James Mitchell
Librarian, American Folk Art Museum
Shirley K. Schlafer Library
45 West 53rd St.
New York, NY 10019
[log in to unmask]
(212) 265-1040 x110
Lauren Lessing <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>Dear ARLIS colleagues,
>
>We must make some kind of statement in protest to this wanton destruction
>of
>Iraq's cultural heritage. Our government should not be in the business of
>burning libraries and looting museums, or causing them to be burned and
>looted. As librarians, we have a duty, I believe, to make a stand.
>Individually, please write to your congressmen/women. Jointly... what can
>we do? I don't feel we should stand by and do nothing.
>
>Lauren
>
>
>From a John Burns' article, NY Times:
>
>Among other buildings afire or still smoldering in eastern Baghdad today
>were the city hall, the Agriculture Ministry and - so thoroughly burned
>that heat still radiated 50 paces from its front doors - the National
>Library. Not far from the National Museum of Iraq, which was looted on
>Thursday and Friday with the loss of almost all of its store of 170,000
>artifacts, the library was considered another of the repositories of an
>Iraqi civilization dating back at least 7,000 years.
>
>By tonight, virtually nothing was left of the library and its tens of
>thousands of old manuscripts and books, and of archives like Iraqi
>newspapers tracing the country's turbulent history from the era of
>Ottoman rule through to Mr. Hussein. Reading rooms and the stacks where
>the collections were stored were reduced to smoking vistas of blackened
>rubble.
>
>Across the street, a lone American tank roared out of the monumental
>gates of the Defense Ministry, untouched by the looters presumably
>because they knew that the ministry, at least, would be under close
>guard by American troops.
>
>Almost as much as the civilian casualties from American bombs and tanks,
>the destruction of the museum and the library has ignited passions
>against American troops, for their failure to intervene. How far these
>passions offset the widespread jubilation at the toppling of Mr. Hussein
>is impossible to tell, in part because of the differing views within the
>population. Along looters, many but not all of them from the
>impoverished underclass, and especially from the slums of Saddam City,
>the end of Mr. Hussein's government appears to have been greeted as an
>absolute good.
>
>But a different view emerges among Baghdad's professionals. Many of them
>managed to elude the worst brutalities of Mr. Hussein, either because
>they were members of the Baath Party, or were Sunni Muslims, or because,
>as doctors, lawyers, engineers and university teachers, they made
>themselves useful to the government and offered few challenges to its
>survival. Among those people, the common view in recent days has been
>the one expressed by protesters who gathered in the heat outside the
>Palestine Hotel today, shouting abuse at the marines: that the cure has
>proven worse than the disease - that having many of the city's principal
>institutions laid to waste by looters has been too high a price for
>freedom.
>
>One exponent of that view is Gailan Ramiz, a Princeton-educated
>political scientist at Baghdad University, who sought out reporters at
>the hotel.
>
>Dr. Ramiz, 62, had bitter words for Mr. Hussein, but he added: "I
>believe the United States has committed an act of irresponsibility with
>few parallels in history, with the looting of the National Museum, the
>National Library and so many of the ministries. People are saying that
>the U.S. wanted this - that it allowed all this to happen because it
>wanted the symbolism of ordinary Iraqis attacking every last token of
>Saddam Hussein's power."
>
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>[log in to unmask]
__________________________________________________________________
Mail submissions to [log in to unmask]
For information about joining ARLIS/NA see:
http://www.arlisna.org//membership.html
Send administrative matters (file requests, subscription requests, etc)
to [log in to unmask]
ARLIS-L Archives and subscription maintenance:
http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/arlis-l.html
Questions may be addressed to list owner (Kerri Scannell) at: [log in to unmask]
