WRITTEN QUESTION E-1520/03 by Lucio Manisco (GUE/NGL)and Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Council. Sacking of Iraq's cultural and artistic heritage — the role of the European Union.
Date: 2003-05-06
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Interpol, Iraq, Unesco, archaeology, cultural heritage, cultural object, heritage protection, illicit trade, library, museum, the EU's international role

26.2.2004

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 51 E/103

(cid:1) whether action has been taken or is being taken to contribute to better understanding of Jewish
history, the various aspects of Judeo-Christian relations and the Holocaust, with particular regard for a
multicultural school-age audience, and, if so, what does that action involve?

Reply

(29 September 2003)

The Council strongly condemns any anti-Semitic outrages and is concerned regarding the possible increase
of these outrages.

The EUMC is explicitly created to monitor racist or xenophobe incidents, which include anti-Semitic
incidents. No further observation mechanisms are planned.

Historical education of the population is not within the competence of the Council.

(2004/C 51 E/115)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1520/03

by Lucio Manisco (GUE/NGL)
and Alexandros Alavanos (GUE/NGL) to the Council

(6 May 2003)

Subject: Sacking of Iraq’s cultural and artistic heritage (cid:1) the role of the European Union

The sacking of the National Archaeological Museum in Baghdad and other museum buildings in Iraq as
well as the devastation of the country’s libraries and historical archives by vandals, but also and above all
by professional thieves clearly in the pay of Western antique dealers, began in Baghdad on the night of
10 April 2003 and after a pause started again on a vast scale in other cities and at archaeological sites in
Iraq between 14/15 April 2003.

As is reported in the British newspaper the Daily Telegraph (20 April 2003), many of the artefacts taken
(around 179 thousand in Baghdad alone) are already being offered for sale on various Internet sites. This is
a terrible tragedy for the whole of mankind and one compared by the leading US archaeologist Paul
Zimansky to the fire that destroyed the library in Alexandria.

1. Will the Council condemn these events as a flagrant violation, by the coalition forces on the ground
in Iraq, of the Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event
of Armed Conflict, and of the 1970 Convention on the Means of Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit
Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property?

2. What concrete support will the Council provide to the call issued on 17 April 2003 by Dr Koïchiro
Matsuura, the Director-General of Unesco, to the international community, the UN Security Council and
the governments of the states bordering Iraq for all states to adopt the requisite ‘emergency legal and
administrative measures’ to prevent the importation, trafficking or passage through their territory of any
cultural, archaeological or bibliographical object from Iraq, and to enforce the confiscation and restitution
of stolen artefacts to Iraq, not least through criminal penalties under the laws of individual countries?

3. Will the Council ask the EU Member States to prohibit the legal and illegal trade in any artefacts
originating from the area that was once Mesopotamia for a minimum period of at least 5 years?

4. Will the Council report to the European Parliament at its plenary sitting of 12 to 15 May 2003 on
the measures adopted to end this destruction?

C 51 E/104

Official Journal of the European Union

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26.2.2004

Reply

(13 October 2003)

As already expressed in the reply to Written Question P-1496/03 by the Honourable Member
1.
Florence Kuntz, the Council is deeply concerned about the destruction of cultural goods, archaeological
sites and historical monuments in Iraq, the vandalism and looting of Iraqi museums and libraries of
worldwide importance and resulting possible trafficking in artefacts illegally removed from Iraq.

2.
The Council at its meeting on 6 May 2003 agreed unanimously on a declaration in which it stressed
in particular ‘the need to protect in an efficient way the cultural goods of Iraq and to return the objects
illegally removed from museums or archeaological sites’, and in which it declared ‘the European Union’s
active support of Unesco’s related initiatives and actions’. This declaration was formally adopted on
26 May 2003.

3.
The Council equally adheres to UN Security Council resolution 1483 on Iraq of 22 May 2003, which
in its paragraph 7 stipulates that ‘all Member States shall take appropriate steps to facilitate the safe return
to Iraqi institutions of Iraqi cultural property and other items of archaeological, historical, cultural, rare
scientific, and religious importance illegally removed from the Iraq National Museum, the National Library,
and other locations in Iraq (…) including by establishing a prohibition on trade in or transfer of such items
(…).’ The Council is currently examining a draft common position following-up on the UNSC resolution
and providing in particular for ‘taking appropriate steps’ in regard of Iraqi cultural property.

The Honourable Member will remember that the Council did report to the European Parliament

4.
plenary session of 12-15 May on the general situation in Iraq (14 May 2003).

(2004/C 51 E/116)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1523/03

by Mario Mauro (PPE-DE) to the Council

(6 May 2003)

Subject: The case of Oriel de Armas Peraza

At its April part-session the European Parliament adopted an urgent resolution on human rights in Cuba in
which it vigorously condemned the Castro regime’s abuses of power.

Since detainees are mainly accused of offences such as expressing disagreement with the Cuban
Government’s policies and practising freedom of speech (and hence of subversive activity under Law 88
on the protection of the country’s independence), the Council’s attention is drawn to the symbolic case of
Mr Oriel de Armas Peraza.

The Cuban exile Oriel de Armas Peraza, who has lived for a year in Vicenza (Italy) with his wife and four-
year-old daughter, is a militant within the Alianza Patriótica Cubana human-rights association and he is
awaiting a decision on the application for political asylum which he has submitted to the appropriate
Italian authorities. If he is sent back to Cuba he will undoubtedly be arrested on account of his political
activities and his many attacks on the Castro regime.

Furthermore, his situation poses a particular problem, since he has no access to medical care and is unable
to secure treatment for his daughter, who is asthmatic.

The residence permit granted to Mr Oriel de Armas Peraza expired on 8 August 2002 but it was extended
by the authorities in Vicenza until 14 February 2003, pending a decision on whether or not he should be
granted political asylum.