[MSN] Treasure troves and lack of supervision turn Afghanistan into looter's paradise

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 Treasure troves and lack of supervision turn Afghanistan into looter's
paradise

The Associated Press
Friday, February 2, 2007
BRUSSELS, Belgium

Looters are still ransacking the treasures of Afghanistan, where many
antiquities were destroyed by the Taliban. The International Council of
Museums on Friday launched a plan to contain the scourge.

The group published a "red list of Afghanistan antiquities at risk," hoping
to alert collectors, dealers and museums to be vigilant when they come face
to face with valuable objects that could have been stolen.

"Ancient sites and monuments, ranging from the Old Stone Age to the 20th
Century, are being attacked and systematically looted," an ICOM statement
said.

Afghanistan, which for centuries was at a crossroad of Asian cultures, has
always been a treasure trove for archeologists.

Before it was ousted, the Taliban regime used religious arguments to justify
its destruction of ancient Buddhist statues and other priceless art works.
Now, greed and chaos are contributing to the sacking of the nation's
heritage, the group said.

"Afghanistan is now at serious risk from organized destruction and
plundering," ICOM's Secretary General John Zvereff said.

The country's fledgling government has said that - with its police and army
struggling against resurgent Taliban fighters, warlords and opium barons -
it has insufficient resources for protecting archaeological sites and
museums.

"The means we have are not sufficient. We see worsening vandalism," said
Humayum Tandar, Afghan ambassador to Belgium.

Many fear that the profits of illicit trade in artifacts could be going
toward funding Afghan warlords or Taliban fighters.

"Some of the trade is used to finance armaments and militia," said Lucas
Verhaegen, a Belgian police investigator of illegal trafficking.

Much has been made of an exhibit at Paris' Guimet Museum, where 22,000
pieces of jewel-encrusted crowns, golden daggers and baubles from an ancient
burial mound are back on display after being hidden for years by Afghans at
great personal risk.

Missing, however, are more than 55,000 art objects that were stolen from all
over the country since the 1980s, archaeologist Prof. Zemayalai Tarzi said.

"Never has a country been looted so systematically as Afghanistan," he said.
"It was before the Taliban, it was during the Taliban, it was after. And it
continues," he said.

The International Council of Museums' red list does not include objects
already stolen, but highlights those categories that would most likely be
targeted in looting. It includes elegantly designed pottery and statuettes
from the 3rd millennium BC, golden reliquaries from the 1st century and
Islamic panels from the 13th century.

Artifacts from Afghan burial sites have turned up in fancy auction houses
and antique shops in London, Tokyo and New York.

Verhaegen said that smuggling routes were intentionally complicated. For
example: through the Khyber Pass to Pakistan's Peshawar, on to Lebanon, and
then via the airport either in Brussels or Amsterdam to a final destination
in Switzerland or the United States.

"The more transit points you have, the more difficult it is to retrace the
origins," Verhaegen said. Certificates could be changed along the way to
make the art appear legitimate.

Any investigation by police or customs officials that find a valuable parcel
would be complicated because it would involve so many countries, he said.
Afghan authorities, for example, typically take three months to answer just
the initial inquiries about artifacts.

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