UN peacekeepers: cultural crime, too

UN troops have had a shameful record in recent years, having been implicated in everything from rape and robbery to weapons trafficking and enslavement. So perhaps this should come as no surprise:

Spectacular prehistoric depictions of animal and human figures created up to 6,000 years ago on Western Saharan rocks have been vandalised by United Nations peacekeepers, The Times has learnt.

Archaeological sites boasting ancient paintings and engravings of giraffes, buffalo and elephants have been defaced within the past two years by personnel attached to the UN mission, known by its French acronym, Minurso.

Graffiti, some of it more than a metre high and sprayed with paint meant for use for marking routes, now blights the rock art at Lajuad, an isolated site known as Devil Mountain, which is regarded by the local Sahrawi population as a mystical place of great cultural significance.

Many of the UN "graffiti artists" signed and dated their work, revealing their identities and where they are from. Minurso personnel stationed in Western Sahara come from almost 30 countries. They are monitoring a ceasefire between the occupying Moroccan forces and the Polisario Front, which is seeking independence.

No pleading ignorance, either:

"Issa", a Kenyan major who signed his name and wrote the date, had just completed a UN course, Ethics in Peacekeeping, documents show.

Worse, this doesn't appear to be an isolated incident -- rather, the opposite:

. . . a report by Nick Brooks, of the University of East Anglia, and Joaquim Soler, of the University of Gerona . . . outlines the "severe vandalism", saying that it "now appears to be an essentially universal practice when Minurso staff visit rock art sites"

Meanwhile, further accusations here:

Morocco's director of national heritage blamed UN peacekeeping forces Thursday for vandalising prehistoric sites in the Western Sahara while patrolling the demilitarised zone. . .

According to him there have been two types of vandalism carried out by UN forces - low-level, such as graffiti scribbled on ancient rocks, and "deliberate vandalism", such as the theft of cave paintings, desecration of graves, and the removal of engraved paving stones.

There has been an apology issued by the UN, but that itself has led to more outrage as the apology was sent to only one of the entities claiming the disputed territory.

UPDATE: Not much attention to this story so far. The NY Times has run just a single paragraph on the story to date, reporting only the Moroccan accusation and not the more comprehensive indictment reported by the Times of London, and reporting it in he-said/she-said format concluding with the reassurance that Unesco was being brought in to take a look.

This story will surely provoke comparison of the coverage with that of coalition forces in Iraq. On one level this isn't quite fair, since the ongoing devastation to archeological sites in Iraq is vastly greater and if anything merits more attention, not less. Yet the greatest damage in Iraq has been indirect, a consequence of civil disorder, rather than the direct result of military action. The vandalism in the Sahara is particularly shocking due to its deliberateness and the identity of those responsible, along with the complete lack of mitigating circumstances.

Posted by David on February 3, 2008 11:34 AM