GERMANY-UNESCO/ENDANGERED SITES UNESCO calls violent attacks on heritage sites "warcrimes"

Record ID: 148954

  • Title: GERMANY-UNESCO/ENDANGERED SITES UNESCO calls violent attacks on heritage sites "warcrimes"
  • Date: 29th June 2015
  • Summary: BONN, GERMANY (JUNE 29, 2015) (REUTERS) **** WARNING CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY **** EXTERIOR OF FORMER BUNDESTAG BUILDING WHERE SESSION IS BEING HELD FLAGS OF UNITED NATIONS, GERMANY AND EUROPE FLYING OUTSIDE BUILDING NEWS CONFERENCE BEGINNING JOURNALISTS NEWS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS (SOUNDBITE) (German) CHAIRPERSON OF WORLD HERITAGE COMMITTEE AND CDU PARTY MINISTER OF STA
  • Embargoed: 14th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVABB9A3NYLH5PIN4FAIO9POIMFT
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: UNESCO on Monday (June 29) described recent attacks on World Heritage Sites by armed groups as "strategies of warfare".
    Islamic State, who have in the past demolished religious and historical heritage sites on occupied territories in Iraq and Syria, urged its followers on Tuesday (June 23) to escalate attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan on Christians, Shi'ites and Sunni Muslims fighting alongside a U.S.-led coalition that seeks to defeat the ultra-radical group.
    At a news conference held in Bonn, Germany as part of the group's 39th session, the chairperson, CDU party politician Maria Boehmer, said that it was important that such acts were outlawed.
    "We realise that those terrorist acts are strategies of warfare. And that's why it's so important that the General Assembly of the United Nations -- but also today with the Bonn declaration -- we outlaw these terrorist acts as war crimes and strategies of war. And also call that -- the plundering of those cultural heritages -- a source of finance for international terrorism," she told journalists.
    "I think this situation combined of course with the destruction of the cultural diversity in Iraq and in the Middle East with the illicit trafficking and the looting also of museums, of illicit archaeological excavations, puts us within our responsibilities to alert the international community, to work with the international community, political circles, with the security, because it is already we see it is an arm of war. Destruction of heritage is an arm of war. It is part of a destructive strategy of violent extremism," the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, added.
    The World Heritage Committee will also examine proposals to add 37 sites to the UNESCO's World Heritage List, during its 10-day meeting, which started on Sunday (June 28).
    Nominations for the list this year include five natural sites, 31 cultural sites and one mixed site, meaning both natural and cultural.
    Asked about the Japanese proposals for inclusion on the list -- the sites of Japan's Meiji industrial revolution -- the director of World Heritage, Kishore Rao, refused to be drawn other than to say that it was up to the committee to decide.
    "The nomination of Japan, you're well aware, that we have issued all the concerned working documents, we have the evaluation report from ICOMOS [International Council on Monuments and Sites] and now it is in the hands of the committee to consider to evaluation and all of the aspects and reach a decision, so this is now before the committee for a decision," he said.
    The Japanese entries have caused controversy due to their links with wartime slave labour from Korea, with the Korea Herald reporting that Seoul demanded that seven of the suggested 23 Meiji sites be removed from the candidate list.
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