From zac@er7.rutgers.edu Tue Jun 27 08:10:06 1995 Date: 24 Jun 1995 09:44:09 -0400 From: Ziad Abichaker To: Borre Ludvigsen Subject: Re: A Letter to UNESCO: A first reaction Here is more detail about the letter to the UNESCO as I got it from REUTERS: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 23 Jun 95 8:20:06 PDT Subject: Archeology criticism angers Lebanon BEIRUT, Lebanon (Reuter) - Foreign archeologists have angered Lebanon by complaining to the United Nations about what they called ``lamentable conditions'' at important archeological sites in central Beirut, Lebanese newspapers said Friday. A petition by 100 archeologists to Federico Mayor, Director General of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), expressed ``disquiet about the fate of the archeological sites of Beirut.'' The petition, published in two Beirut dailies, gave no details of what was wrong with the sites or with the work and conditions at them. But it called them one of the largest archeological sites of the 20th century. ``The historic and cultural patrimony, still to be discovered...does not belong to the Lebanese alone but to the entire world,'' the petition faxed to the newspapers from Oslo said. Lebanon's culture minister Michel Edde said the complaint was based on ``false and distorted information.'' His ministry and Lebanon's directorate of antiquities are backing excavations in central Beirut by more than 150 archeologists in 14 missions from the Netherlands, France, Italy, Germany, Britain and Lebanon. Digs have been underway since September 1993 in a large area where hundreds of buildings damaged in the 1975-90 civil war have been demolished to make way for a massive city center reconstruction project. SOLIDERE, the company in charge of the redevelopment, and Lebanon's billionaire Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, are helping to finance the digs. They have already unearthed a wealth of stone age, Phoenician, Roman, Byzantine, Mameluke and Ottoman remains and provided much information about the ancient history of Beirut. Many of the sites will be built over after the finds have been photographed and recorded or removed, and authorities plan a special archeological park in the downtown development to display some of the finds. The archeologists's petition appealed to UNESCO to play a fundamental role in the digs. ``During these days in which politics seem to hobble archeology in Lebanon...we hope that your administration will take the necessary action,'' the petition added without explanation. The criticism appeared to anger Edde, who urged the archeologists to come to Beirut and see for themselves what was going on. ``We invite them publicly to come here. We have nothing to hide,'' he said. ``This campaign is definitely based on false and distorted information.'' Edde said the criticisms appeared linked to the stalled peace process between Lebanon and Israel. ``There is a campaign of denigration against Lebanon related directly to the peace process. Everybody knows who is behind these campaigns,'' Edde said.