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UNESCO chief underlines restoration efforts in Iraq

A UNESCO team works on a restoration in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq. AFP/File
A UNESCO staff works on a restoration within the Outdated Metropolis of Mosul, Iraq. AFP/File

BAGHDAD: Whereas strolling by means of the famend guide road of Baghdad, which has just lately undergone renovations, the Director-Normal of UNESCO expressed her unwavering dedication on Monday to help with the restoration of Iraq’s cultural legacy, which has suffered vastly because of the devastation attributable to battle.

Years of conflict and insurgency have taken a heavy toll on the various Mesopotamian, Islamic and Christian treasures in a rustic residence to 6 UNESCO World Heritage websites.

Iraq is the cradle of civilisations, the place writing and the primary cities emerged, however many years of unrest have left many priceless cultural treasures broken or obliterated.

“It’s the tradition, the training, that have been intentionally destroyed, attacked, in a rustic with a thousands-year-old historical past,” Audrey Azoulay, director-general of the United Nations Academic, Scientific and Cultural Group, advised AFP.

UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay tours the reopened national museum in Baghdad. AFP
UNESCO Director-Normal Audrey Azoulay excursions the reopened nationwide museum in Baghdad. AFP

She spoke throughout a go to to Al-Mutanabbi Avenue, which has lengthy drawn bibliophiles and is known as after the celebrated Tenth-century poet Abul Tayeb al-Mutanabbi.

The mission of Azoulay, a former tradition minister in France, comes forward of the twentieth anniversary later this month of the US-led invasion which toppled Saddam Hussein however ushered within the bloodiest interval in Iraqi historical past.

Antiquities have been extensively looted, typically by organised crime teams, and lots of treasures have been stolen from the nationwide museum within the capital Baghdad.

Extra injury was performed in the course of the brutal rise of the Islamic State (IS) group a decade later and the battle to dislodge it which devastated massive areas within the northern metropolis of Mosul.

Even Al-Mutanabbi Avenue, a centre of mental life with its cafes and books, couldn’t escape the ache. In March 2007 a suicide automotive bomb killed 30 individuals and wounded 60 others there.

Among the many lifeless have been sons of the Shabandar cafe proprietor, whom Azoulay sat with on Monday, accompanied by Iraq’s tradition minister, Ahmed Fakak al-Badrani.

– ‘Like nowhere else’ –

“These heartbreaks of conflict, of occupation by IS, deeply bruised Iraqi society,” Azoulay mentioned.

“Due to that, UNESCO is dedicated like nowhere else to mobilise the worldwide neighborhood and act immediately on the bottom.”

Since 2018 the company has raised greater than $150 million for tasks in Iraq, largely the reconstruction of Mosul. IS seized the metropolis as its stronghold earlier than being pushed out in 2017, however the battle to retake it decreased the Outdated Metropolis to rubble.

Among the many casualties was the Twelfth-century leaning minaret, nicknamed Al-Hadba, which is a part of the UNESCO restoration effort.

“I’m right here to get well this cultural identification, to assist Iraq rebuild, not solely the partitions, the heritage as we’re doing in Mosul, but additionally all this intangible heritage, this richness linked to training, to know-how, that suffered a lot,” Azoulay mentioned.

She is because of go to Mosul on Tuesday.

Azoulay additionally stopped on the nationwide museum whose reopening, she advised reporters, is an indication of hope and “permits many Iraqi households to reconnect with this lengthy historical past”.

However a reminder of the nation’s many challenges got here when the ability reduce out on the finish of her briefing, because it typically does within the nation whose electrical energy grid is dilapidated.

UNESCO has additionally declared pure heritage websites in Iraq, together with the southern marshlands fed by the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers.

The huge wetlands have been put at extreme threat, by draining beneath Saddam’s regime and by local weather change and upstream dam building.

Due to its rivers and water sources, “this nation was so fertile,” mentioned Azoulay, who met President Abdul Latif Rashid and Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani.

She mentioned she proposed to Iraqi authorities a UNESCO mission to see the way it might help in water administration.


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