6A = THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
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WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2003
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Ashcroft: Museums professionally robbed
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The Associated Press
LYON, France — Iraqi museums pillaged after the war were looted by organized thieves who knew exactly what they wanted and may have already taken priceless items out of the country. U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday.
Ashcroft spoke at an Interpol conference aimed at creating a database listing pieces of art and historical objects stolen in the aftermath of the war.
A main theme at the two-day Interpol conference, which concluded yesterday, was how much officials still don't know about the pillaging—who carried it out,
how organized the looting was and how many pieces are missing.
Ashcroft, however, said investigators had indications the looting was a professional job.
"From the evidence that has emerged, there is a strong case to be made that the looting and theft of the artifacts were perpetrated by organized criminal groups — criminals who knew precisely what they were looking for." Ashcroft said.
Ashcroft
His account,matches comments by others — including officials at Baghdad's National Museum — that at least some looters had access to museum keys and could distinguish copies from real pieces of art.
For example, looters who entered a reinforced storage area left three rooms full of artifacts untouched but almost emptied a cabinet at the back of the building containing hundreds of small — but valuable — ancient cylinders used as signature seals.
"It is clear that the person who did this had intimate knowledge of the museum and its storage practices," said Lt. Col. Matthew Bogdanos, who is leading a U.S. inquiry into the damage done by
Ashcroft did not say whether he suspected international organized crime, such as the Mafia, but others at the Lyon conference said they had no such evidence.
looters at the museum.
"We are waiting for more information," said Jean-Pierre Jouanny, an Interpol specialist in theft of cultural objects.
Lack of reliable information has turned out to be a major obstacle to retrieval, experts say. Cultural officials say they have not been able to get access to records in Iraq to help shed light on what pieces are missing.
Speaking in Baghdad, Bogdanos said 38 items were missing from the main gallery, but
museum officials were still trying to establish inventories for several external sites where artifacts had been transferred before the allied invasion.
Every day, items are being returned to the museum, ranging from an inscribed cornerstone from King Nebuchadnezzar's 7th century B.C. Babylon palace to curios sold at the Baghdad airport gift shop.
Iraq's museums held millennia-old artworks from the Assyrian, Sumerian and Babylonian cultures. Ancient Mesopotamia — modern-day Iraq — was the cradle of urban civilization. Some experts fear thousands of artworks, including priceless antiquities, may be missing.
SARS protests erupt at China hospitals
The Associated Press
BEIJING — Hundreds of protesters in a village and city in central China tore down fences around two hospitals after hearing they would be treating SARS cases, authorities said yesterday, as violence against official handling of the disease spread.
The protests in Henan province follow similar outbursts in coastal Zhejiang province and a village outside Beijing. Many villagers fear the illness, which has killed at least 214 people and sickened more than 4,400 on mainland China, will spread from Beijing and other major cities to the poorer countryside.
declined to be named.
In the eastern city of Nanjing, an official from the Communist Party Propaganda Ministry said nearly 10,000 people who had close contacts with confirmed or suspected SARS cases have been isolated. Those quarantined were from apartments, schools and hotels, said the official, who
Meanwhile, the University of California at Berkeley said it will turn away new students from China, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong in coming months in what is believed to be the first such move by a major U.S. university.
SARS has killed at least 478 people and infected more than 6,600 worldwide—including 214 deaths and 4,409 cases in China alone.
In Beijing, the hardest hit area, the situation "remains grave" despite recent drastic measures, state newspapers yesterday quoted Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao as saying. Beijing has reported 103 deaths and almost 1,900 cases of infection.
The neighboring densely populated province of Hebei reported nine new cases Monday, bringing its total to 107. World Health Organization investigators who have visited Beijing and other cities are considering going to Hebei to study its anti-SARS efforts.
"The numbers have been jumping there," said WHO spokeswoman Mangai Balasegaram.
In central China, protesters in the village of Hujiayao in Henan ransacked a hospital on April 28 and 29, destroying walls and fencing, said a local official. Henan has reported 14 cases but no deaths.
"People were worried about being infected, because the hospital was close to the village," said the official, who would only give her surname, Li.
In the nearby city of Linzhou, protesters attacked a hospital and a disease-prevention office April 28 after hearing the two sites were to receive patients from Hujiayao, officials said.
The head of the disease-prevention office was fired last Friday for failing to stop the riot, said Li Jianshu, an official of the city's SARS prevention center. Li said the city health director was also fired, but it wasn't clear why.
accounts of whether there were any suspected SARS cases in Hujijayao at the time of the protest.
A policeman in Linzhou said authorities were going to move the suspected SARS patients from the village to Linzhou after the protest.
Three people who led the violence have been detained and another 10 people are to be punished for destroying medical facilities, said the policeman, who refused to give his name.
The officials gave conflicting
But Li, the Linzhou official, said the patients in Hujiayao had been found free of the disease and released before the protest there began. He said no suspected SARS patients were hospitalized in Linzhou.
Henan was at least the third place in China where violent protests have erupted over the handling of SARS cases. Many of the incidents take place in rural areas, and state media often are under orders not to report on protests. Information about such incidents often gets out long after the fact.
Thermal tiles caused Columbia disaster
HOUSTON—Columbia accident investigators announced yesterday that damaged thermal tiles allowed superheated gases inside the shuttle's left wing as it re-entered the atmosphere, leading to destruction
"We have a very good understanding of what happened," Investigation Board Chairman Harold Gehman said. "The orbiter was returning with a pre-existing flaw in the wing ... The wing got heated from the inside."
But Gehman said how the wing was damaged was unproven, although a collision with foam insulation from an external fuel tank at launch was the likely cause.
The shuttle came apart Feb.1 while streaking toward a planned landing at Florida's Kennedy Space Center. Seven astronauts were killed.
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