May 7 2003, 4:51PM

Museums looted in Bagdad

"Go in Ali Baba! It's all yours."

According to eye witnesses, U.S. soldiers literally opened the
floodgates to the looters of iraqi museums. The goods were often
traded on nearby streets on the very same day. By Walter Sommerfeld*

(SZ v. 08.05.2003) - Anarchy rules in fallen Baghdad. People are armed
to their teeth, and gunfights can be heard all day and night - shots
of warning, fear, or joy at a temporarily recovered electricity
supply. The greatest worry therefore is security. Out of the hundreds
of thousands of former officials - teachers, doctors, professors or
civil servants - not one has received their salary for the last two
months. Thievery, robbery and holdup murder appear on the agenda. In
broad daylight, armed bandits force car owners to stop and hand over
their posessions. On the other hand, militia have been formed, and
ordinary citizens observe and regulate traffic using self-made signs.
Iraqis indeed are masters of improvisation.

The fury with which infrastructure and cultural assets have been
destroyed is particularly shocking. Eye witnesses' accounts are
identical in detail. Obviously, facilities have been plundered
systematically from district to district. Unprofitable assets were
simply destroyed; in museums, libraries, interpretive centres, the
country's fifteen universities, all ministries except the oil
ministry, hospitals, state-run warehouses, hotels, banks, palaces,
even the German embassy, the French cultural institute and UN
buildings. Until the beginning of May, plunderings took place all day
long.

These raids were either instigated or tolerated. Many Iraqi people
unavailingly attempted to convince U.S. soldiers to intervene. Even
objections at the commandants' headquarters at the Palestine-Hotel
were in vein. Among the plunderers were poor slum inhabitants as well
as middle class residents. Their motives were poverty, anger, revenge
or greed and the loot was often traded on nearby streets on the very
same day.

The most stunning detail common to all depictions was the assertion
that in many cases U.S. American soldiers helped the plunderers by
breaking firmly locked gates and then inviting everybody around:'Go
in, Ali Baba, it's yours!'. Among U.S. soldiers, 'Ali Baba' is the
collective term used for Iraqi plunderers. One UN employee observed
Americans entering the engineering university, opening computers and
removing their hard drives before the plunderers set their work on.

Many Iraqis openly talk about these occurences but prefer to remain
anonymous because of the compulsory cooperation with the Americans and
the fear of repression. The same applies to the employees of the
Museum of Iraq and its residents all the more since their observations
are highly explosive. On Tuesday, April 8 intense combats surrounded
the museum because of its central location and strategic importance.
The armed militia that were supposed to protect the building from
raids left the scene in agony, and the building fell into the hands of
the Americans.

The very next day, according to a high-ranking employee of the museum
two American tanks and several soldiers advanced, broke the main
entrance open and remained unwatched in the showrooms for about two
hours. Then they took away several objects and pulled out. The
observers were not able to identify the objects taken along but most
of the very big and eye-caching exhibits were left in place. Only the
smaller objects were taken out.

One resident reports that Iraqis who were coincidentally standing
nearby were then invited by the U.S. soldiers to help themselves:
'This is your treasure, get in!'. For three days the plunderers were
allowed to do their work in front of the rolling camera. The few
remaining employees vainly asked American troops for help:'This is not
our order.', they replied.

The employees were worried that after the plunderers had taken all
valuable objects incendiaries might destroy the remaining
documentation, notes on archaeological excavations and the library, as
seen elsewhere. Therefore, on Sunday two directors asked for an
audition at the commandants' headquarters. After a four-hour waiting
period they were allowed to bring forward their concerns. The
commander promised to send tanks and soldiers for the museum's
protection immediately. But two days later still nothing had happened.
Then one director managed to phone his colleague at the British Museum
in London over satellite who then mobilised several British and
American contacts.

Since then, the Museum of Iraq is one of the best protected museums in
the world. Its employees and even the directors - who are still
cleaning up and registering the damages - are allowed into the
building only after intense scrutiny. 'We decide who gets in and
when', the guard commander told me. The employees are disgusted with
this amount of paternalism. In one tract inside the museum the
regained objects are stored. About a dozen of soldiers watches over
the merely one hundred finds laid out on the tables.

Some of the best-known exhibits have definitely disappeared (see
list). The plunderers unhamperedly broke open the repositories where
170 000 items were stored. A current generator has been installed a
few days ago and the employees are now recording the damages. The
library remained intact as well as many notes on archeological
excavations and most of the inventary books. A total loss was
prevented but most of the collections are missing.

Obviously, the robbed antiques are especially sought-after by
journalists. On the 500km highway between Baghdad and the Jordan
border armed gangs are increasingly targeting press vehicles. One
victim reported that after bandits had taken over his car they
immediately wanted to know: 'Where are the antiques?' In a
Journalist's car twelve boxes filled with antiques were found.

The most precious, uninsurable objects - among which a famous Assyrian
gold treasure - were stored in the central bank's vault. But even
there, the plunderers were given plenty of rope for a long time before
it was shielded by soldiers. The Antiques Office has no information
about which treasures remained preserved and where they are.

But even after an international outrage the destruction of Iraq's
cultural assets is still being tolerated. A European colleague and an
Iraqi archeologist report that in Babylon - perhaps the most famous
city of the Old World - plunderings and incendiaries were observable
until a few days ago. Among other things, documentation about Iraqi
archaeological excavations was destroyed. As in Baghdad, the Antiques
Office's representatives called on the U.S. troops who were
accomodated in one of Saddam's former palaces. All in vein. 'This is
not our order'.

Iraq's fifteen universities have been completely plundered and set on
fire, except for the Baghdad University in Dschadirija, where the
Americans had their cantonment.

Mustansarija University - the second oldest university in the world
after Bologna - was completely destroyed. Even permanently installed
equipment and power outlets were dismantled, and the campus was burnt
down. The faculty of humanities of Baghdad University in Wazirija is
badly destroyed, as well as the faculty of archaeology. Some of the
buildings have collapsed due to the fires. From the German language
and literature studies library which held more than 15 000 volumes,
nothing is left but a few lumps of ash.

In the meantime, professors and students have started their cleanup
efforts. But it is not easy: Gasoline supply is running out - one gas
station after the other is closing down and in addition to paying the
ten-fold price, customers have to wait in line for four to five hours
for a tankful of petrol. Driving to the university is now very
expensive. Some rooms have provisorily been remade and secured with
self-bought padlocks.

On May 17 the universities are supposed to reopen - without furniture,
libraries, paper, administration documents. Brooms and shovels - not
computers and lecture notebooks - are the most important tools now.
Science has to be taught from memory. Many teachers will do it for the
students' sake, so they don't lose a whole year.

'Under Saddam it was bad but now it is even worse. Why are they doing
this to us?', the archaeological faculty's dean said. 'Our future is
dark. There is no confidence, in anything. We only want to survive.'

*The author is a professor for old orientalism in Marburg and a
regular visitor to Iraq for 20 years. He was one of the first German
scientists to visit Iraq after the war.