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Cultural History of Iraq Jeopardized by Looting of Museum Though Some Artifacts Survive in New York; Marsh Arabs Ancient Lands Destroyed

Aired May 05, 2003 - 14:35   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's send it to Maria Hinojosa. You know, we've been talking a lot about Iraqi antiquities and the tragic loss of them in the wake of the Iraq war. The good news is that many of the Iraqi artifacts, which talk about a civilization that goes back some 10,000 years -- they don't call it the Cradle of Civilization for nothing -- were on display elsewhere. CNN's Maria Hinojosa joins us from New York City to explain what is there and what it is there and what is worth seeing. Hello, Maria.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN URBAN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Miles, I have to say it's all worth seeing. It's very extraordinary. Most of the pieces here have never been seen in the United States and they really are pretty extraordinary.

Now, the show is called "Art of the First Cities." The idea being that what we learned in terms of our civilization and in terms of urban experience there really came from these areas in Mesopotamia, which is now, of course, Iraq.

Now, you have a piece like this, again, really extraordinary, the level of detail that you're seeing here with the lapis lazuli. Again, the sense is that the what was rooted here in these first cities has given birth to our own expressions in Western civilization as well.

Now, another part of this show over here gives you a sense of the writing as well. The concept of writing, they say, really originated in this time period. The idea of communicating, of using writing to communicate. So you see some of that here in these pieces.

But, Miles, I have to tell you there's a lot of very mixed emotions as well with this show because it's drawing an extraordinary amount of attention. But perhaps people say that wouldn't be the case if it hadn't been for the fact that just three weeks ago the U.S. military was bombing precisely some of these cities, the art of which is now being exalted here.

So some very contradictory feelings. It is drawing a tremendous amount of attention. It opens on Thursday. The sad part, though, Miles, perhaps -- and this is what the museum director said -- perhaps the 400 pieces that you can see here may be the bulk of what is left of these antiquities. So that's a very sad statement if, in fact, it turns out to be true which he is hoping it does not -- Miles. O'BRIEN: You know these curators have to be really almost grieving at this point when you consider what that's been lost. Truly irreparable types of losses, aren't they?

HINOJOSA: You know what? They really are. I mean a lot of these people of course don't let the tears come out, but you can feel for them what they're saying when they're saying they went into mourning as they were watching these images. Mostly, Miles, because they're saying they warned the U.S. military, warned the U.S. government. Academics, museum directors, anthropologists, archaeologists, telling them they had to protect the Baghdad Museum. So many of them raise their arms and say they don't know what happened when we warned them.

So one interesting last point as well. That the director of this museum is saying he believes the amnesty should be offered as well as rewards to try to get some of these pieces back. As controversial as he sounds, he says that this should be done to try to recuperate some of these pieces if they're out there -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: You know it's particularly poignant when you consider in the wake of World War II so much of the treasure troves and artworks and historical artifacts of Europe were salvaged and saved.

HINOJOSA: That's right, that's right. And also, one of the things we haven't spoken about a lot because so much attention has been put on the museum of Baghdad is also the libraries. Entire libraries of information from Mesopotamia, the Ottoman Empire, all of that perhaps lost. So, really, Miles, when you talk to these directors, they just say we're in utter pain, and they're hoping, hoping for the best that some of this can be recovered.

O'BRIEN: All right, Maria Hinojosa, thank you very much. Fascinating exhibit there. Worth checking out if you're in New York.

The culture of one group of Iraqis has also been stolen. Their entire culture we're talking about. The Marsh Arabs, as they're called, lost their way of life courtesy of Saddam Hussein's brutal government and his decision to dam up and drain a series of marsh lands in the south. CNN's John Vause has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was never meant to be this way. Dust storms swirling across dry, parched earth. The sun-bleached lifeless shells, evidence of a fresh water paradise now all but gone. This sprawling desert oasis was once the size of Wales. Not now. Iraq's marsh lands are dying, so too the way of life of the people who live here, the Madan, or Marsh Arab.

MESHA'AN BISHOLA, MARSH ARAB (through translator): I remember the time when we were in the marshes. I used to hunt birds and fish. We had the reeds to build our houses and boats. We were living there. We were free.

VAUSE: What happened to Mesha'an Bishola is the story of the Marsh Arabs. It's been only a decade since he lived what he says was an idealic life. But when his people defied Saddam Hussein and joined the uprising after the last Gulf War they paid a dear price.

Mesha'an was forced to leave his house build on reeds, forced to live in this village with his wife and nine children. Around them, he says, houses were destroyed, the water was poisoned. Like many others here, they survive on government rations.

RISALAH MOHAMMED, MESHA'AN'S WIFE (through translator): It was my homeland. Of course I cried when I left. They took all my property, my animals, everything I had. When I came here, I had nothing. All I have now is this house.

VAUSE: In the early '90s, Saddam's engineers started construction of a complicated system of levies, dams, and man made rivers. They changed the course of the mighty Euphrates and Tigris, changed their natural flood plains which once made this ground so fertile.

(on camera): Saddam and his Ba'ath Party officials said draining the marshes was an act of kindness, to open the area up for agriculture, to build roads, schools, and hospitals. But the United Nations Environment Program saw it differently. Describing what happened here as one of the worst environmental disasters in history.

(voice-over): In another village, the men gather inside the al Matif (ph), a meeting place made from reeds which should be lush and green but instead are dry and gray, cracked from the heat of the Iraqi sun.

In better times, this type of building floated on the water ways. But now it sits on dry, salt-encrusted earth. There was once a quarter of a million Marsh Arabs, perhaps more. But Human Rights Watch now estimate their numbers at just 40,000.

Kadham Sajeet tells me he knows his culture is dying, a civilization which they trace back to the Babylonians and the Sumerians.

KADHUM SAJEET, MARSH ARAB (through translator): Deep inside me, I know I can do nothing to stop it. All of these people know that. There is nothing I can do. It is in the hands of the government.

VAUSE: At the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris, legend has it this was once the Garden of Eden, the tree where Eve tempted Adam.

Scientists warn, if nothing is done in the next few years, Iraq's marsh lands will be gone forever, a 5,000 year legacy wiped from the face of the planet.

John Vause, CNN, in southern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com



Though Some Artifacts Survive in New York; Marsh Arabs Ancient Lands Destroyed>


Aired May 5, 2003 - 14:35   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's send it to Maria Hinojosa. You know, we've been talking a lot about Iraqi antiquities and the tragic loss of them in the wake of the Iraq war. The good news is that many of the Iraqi artifacts, which talk about a civilization that goes back some 10,000 years -- they don't call it the Cradle of Civilization for nothing -- were on display elsewhere. CNN's Maria Hinojosa joins us from New York City to explain what is there and what it is there and what is worth seeing. Hello, Maria.
MARIA HINOJOSA, CNN URBAN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Miles, I have to say it's all worth seeing. It's very extraordinary. Most of the pieces here have never been seen in the United States and they really are pretty extraordinary.

Now, the show is called "Art of the First Cities." The idea being that what we learned in terms of our civilization and in terms of urban experience there really came from these areas in Mesopotamia, which is now, of course, Iraq.

Now, you have a piece like this, again, really extraordinary, the level of detail that you're seeing here with the lapis lazuli. Again, the sense is that the what was rooted here in these first cities has given birth to our own expressions in Western civilization as well.

Now, another part of this show over here gives you a sense of the writing as well. The concept of writing, they say, really originated in this time period. The idea of communicating, of using writing to communicate. So you see some of that here in these pieces.

But, Miles, I have to tell you there's a lot of very mixed emotions as well with this show because it's drawing an extraordinary amount of attention. But perhaps people say that wouldn't be the case if it hadn't been for the fact that just three weeks ago the U.S. military was bombing precisely some of these cities, the art of which is now being exalted here.

So some very contradictory feelings. It is drawing a tremendous amount of attention. It opens on Thursday. The sad part, though, Miles, perhaps -- and this is what the museum director said -- perhaps the 400 pieces that you can see here may be the bulk of what is left of these antiquities. So that's a very sad statement if, in fact, it turns out to be true which he is hoping it does not -- Miles. O'BRIEN: You know these curators have to be really almost grieving at this point when you consider what that's been lost. Truly irreparable types of losses, aren't they?

HINOJOSA: You know what? They really are. I mean a lot of these people of course don't let the tears come out, but you can feel for them what they're saying when they're saying they went into mourning as they were watching these images. Mostly, Miles, because they're saying they warned the U.S. military, warned the U.S. government. Academics, museum directors, anthropologists, archaeologists, telling them they had to protect the Baghdad Museum. So many of them raise their arms and say they don't know what happened when we warned them.

So one interesting last point as well. That the director of this museum is saying he believes the amnesty should be offered as well as rewards to try to get some of these pieces back. As controversial as he sounds, he says that this should be done to try to recuperate some of these pieces if they're out there -- Miles.

O'BRIEN: You know it's particularly poignant when you consider in the wake of World War II so much of the treasure troves and artworks and historical artifacts of Europe were salvaged and saved.

HINOJOSA: That's right, that's right. And also, one of the things we haven't spoken about a lot because so much attention has been put on the museum of Baghdad is also the libraries. Entire libraries of information from Mesopotamia, the Ottoman Empire, all of that perhaps lost. So, really, Miles, when you talk to these directors, they just say we're in utter pain, and they're hoping, hoping for the best that some of this can be recovered.

O'BRIEN: All right, Maria Hinojosa, thank you very much. Fascinating exhibit there. Worth checking out if you're in New York.

The culture of one group of Iraqis has also been stolen. Their entire culture we're talking about. The Marsh Arabs, as they're called, lost their way of life courtesy of Saddam Hussein's brutal government and his decision to dam up and drain a series of marsh lands in the south. CNN's John Vause has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was never meant to be this way. Dust storms swirling across dry, parched earth. The sun-bleached lifeless shells, evidence of a fresh water paradise now all but gone. This sprawling desert oasis was once the size of Wales. Not now. Iraq's marsh lands are dying, so too the way of life of the people who live here, the Madan, or Marsh Arab.

MESHA'AN BISHOLA, MARSH ARAB (through translator): I remember the time when we were in the marshes. I used to hunt birds and fish. We had the reeds to build our houses and boats. We were living there. We were free.

VAUSE: What happened to Mesha'an Bishola is the story of the Marsh Arabs. It's been only a decade since he lived what he says was an idealic life. But when his people defied Saddam Hussein and joined the uprising after the last Gulf War they paid a dear price.

Mesha'an was forced to leave his house build on reeds, forced to live in this village with his wife and nine children. Around them, he says, houses were destroyed, the water was poisoned. Like many others here, they survive on government rations.

RISALAH MOHAMMED, MESHA'AN'S WIFE (through translator): It was my homeland. Of course I cried when I left. They took all my property, my animals, everything I had. When I came here, I had nothing. All I have now is this house.

VAUSE: In the early '90s, Saddam's engineers started construction of a complicated system of levies, dams, and man made rivers. They changed the course of the mighty Euphrates and Tigris, changed their natural flood plains which once made this ground so fertile.

(on camera): Saddam and his Ba'ath Party officials said draining the marshes was an act of kindness, to open the area up for agriculture, to build roads, schools, and hospitals. But the United Nations Environment Program saw it differently. Describing what happened here as one of the worst environmental disasters in history.

(voice-over): In another village, the men gather inside the al Matif (ph), a meeting place made from reeds which should be lush and green but instead are dry and gray, cracked from the heat of the Iraqi sun.

In better times, this type of building floated on the water ways. But now it sits on dry, salt-encrusted earth. There was once a quarter of a million Marsh Arabs, perhaps more. But Human Rights Watch now estimate their numbers at just 40,000.

Kadham Sajeet tells me he knows his culture is dying, a civilization which they trace back to the Babylonians and the Sumerians.

KADHUM SAJEET, MARSH ARAB (through translator): Deep inside me, I know I can do nothing to stop it. All of these people know that. There is nothing I can do. It is in the hands of the government.

VAUSE: At the confluence of the Euphrates and Tigris, legend has it this was once the Garden of Eden, the tree where Eve tempted Adam.

Scientists warn, if nothing is done in the next few years, Iraq's marsh lands will be gone forever, a 5,000 year legacy wiped from the face of the planet.

John Vause, CNN, in southern Iraq.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com



Though Some Artifacts Survive in New York; Marsh Arabs Ancient Lands Destroyed>