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| Archeological site at the foot of the Fort of
Byblos |
Experts* sent to Lebanon by UNESCO
to assess the state of the country's cultural heritage sites have called
for urgent measures to clean up the oil spill from the World Heritage
edifices along the Byblos shore line. However, they found that major
components of Lebanon's cultural heritage had been spared by the recent
conflict. The experts' findings were presented at a press conference at
UNESCO this morning by the Organization's Assistant Director-General for
Culture, Françoise Rivière, and Mounir Bouchenaki, Director-General of
the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and
Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), who led the mission, 10 - 15
September.
Despite the limited extent of war damage to cultural heritage, the
mission found several areas that require attention to safeguard and
revitalize that heritage.
The most serious damage resulting from the conflict concerns the World
Heritage site of Byblos, which was affected by the oil spill from the
fuel tanks of the Jiyeh power plant, an ecological problem for a large
area of the eastern Mediterranean, according to Mr Bouchenaki. He drew
attention to the urgent need to clean, manually, the stones at the base
of the port's two Medieval towers and other sea-shore archaeological
remains. He estimated that it would take 25 people eight to ten weeks to
conduct the operation and said that they would undergo a one-week
training period before starting. Mr Bouchenaki estimated the cost of the
operation at some US$ 100,000.
The main features of the World Heritage site of Tyre, the Roman
hippodrome and triumphal arch, did not sustain any damage, said Mr
Bouchenaki. But frescoes in a Roman tomb on the site had come partly
unstuck, probably because of vibrations caused by bombs, and required
emergency restoration.
The site of Baalbek, inscribed on UNESCO's World Heritage List, was not
damaged by bombs except for the fall of one block of stone, noted Mr
Bouchenaki. Fissures on the lintels of the temples of Jupiter and
Bacchus at the site had probably widened because of vibrations from
bombings nearby and warranted close monitoring, he said. The mission
also noted that the souk and some old houses in the Old City of Baalbek,
not part of the property inscribed on the World Heritage List, were
damaged by bombs.
South of Baalbek, the World Heritage site of Anjar with its Umayyad
vestiges was found to have been undamaged but is in a poor state of
conservation.
 The mission also visited the Old City of Saida and the nearby Temple of
Echmoun, which Lebanon is preparing to propose for inscription on the
List by the World Heritage Committee, and found them to have been spared
by the war.
Mr Bouchenaki outlined more longer-term measures to preserve Lebanon's
cultural heritage: Setting up photogrammetric equipment to monitor
fissures in several sites; helping Lebanon's Department of Antiquities
develop its human resources to improve the safeguarding and management
of cultural heritage sites; drawing up of a risk map identifying
cultural properties with serious structural weaknesses; and undertaking
measures to consolidate the most seriously threatened structures.
UNESCO's Assistant Director-General for Culture stressed the importance
of culture as a cement of social cohesion in Lebanon and spoke of the
importance of cultural heritage as a symbol of the country's diversity
and tolerance.
Ms Rivière spoke of UNESCO's efforts, even during the fighting, to draw
the belligerents' attention to their obligation to spare cultural
heritage protected by The Hague Convention for the Protection of
Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict, of which both Lebanon
and Israel are States Parties.
Ms Rivière also announced that some US $70,000 could be made available
by the World Heritage Fund for emergency measures for Lebanon's cultural
heritage. This would serve as seed money, she said, and more funds would
be raised to help the country revitalize its cultural sector.
UNESCO is also preparing to send another, multidisciplinary mission to
Lebanon to assess ways in which the Organization may contribute to
reconstruction in culture, education, science and communication, in the
framework of the United Nations' plan for Lebanon.
* Mounir Bouchenaki, Director-General of the International Centre
for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM);
Alain Bouineau, Honorary Professor at the Jean Monnet University of
Saint Etienne, France; Giorgio Croci, Professor at La Sapienza
University, Rome, Italy; Véronique Dauge, Head of the Arab States Unit
at UNESCO's World Heritage Centre; Joseph Kreidi, Culture Project
Officer at UNESCO's Beirut Office; Tamara Teneishivili, Cultural
Programme Specialist at UNESCO's Beirut Office.
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