12 - The Carabinieri, Peacekeeping and Foreign Relations: The Carabinieri Mission to Iraq

Summary

In retrospect, it makes sense that many of the most robust and meaningful responses to the destruction of cultural property in Iraq came from the Italians and more specifically the Carabinieri TPC and the Centre for Archaeological Research and Excavations of Turin (CRAST). CRAST had been working in Iraq since 1964 and had established the Iraqi–Italian Institute of Archaeological Sciences and the Italian–Iraqi Centre for the Restoration of Monuments. In the aftermath of the first Gulf War, many of Iraq's regional museums were looted, with losses in Basra, Kufa, Assur, Sulaimaniya, Babylon, Maysan, Qadissiya, Kirkuk and Duhok. CRAST and the Carabinieri TPC worked together to identify, catalogue and publish information concerning the missing objects (Parapetti 2008, 229).

After the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the associated destruction of cultural heritage, there were, in essence, three additional Italian missions. The first was the Iraq Museum project, in which the Italians sent Carabinieri officers to work in partnership with Italian academics in order to help rebuild the museum in the areas of documentation, recovery of looted objects and virtual interpretation. The second mission was a community-based policing initiative that sent a multidisciplinary force to the south of Iraq as peacekeepers and the third was an archaeological site protection and enforcement mission established following the tragic bombing at Nasiriyah.

THE IRAQ MUSEUM PROJECT

Italian peacekeeping and missions to Iraq began with an expert response to the situation at the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad. In response to a UNESCO conference held in Lyon, France, on 5–6 May 2003, the Carabinieri sent experienced personnel to the National Museum of Iraq to aid its recovery from the extensive looting and damage suffered by this extraordinarily significant institution. At the Lyon conference an international group of museum directors, representatives of ministries of culture and distinguished officers from policing organisations decided to create a database for archaeological objects stolen in Iraq, create an INTERPOL experts group for stolen heritage and create a special INTERPOL unit for the recovery of stolen heritage, known as the INTERPOL Tracking Task Force (ITTF).