Iraq makes at-risk sites list

NEW YORK - The entire country of Iraq, often called the cradle of civilisation, made the list of most endangered cultural sites, joining others from 55 countries that include a Modernist building in New York and a hut in Antarctica.

The list of 100 at-risk sites, issued by the privately financed World Monuments Fund every two years, is chosen from nominations made by a broad array of arts and archaeology experts.

"It's the first time we've listed an entire country in danger," said Bonnie Burnham, president of the fund.

Looting and the inability to mobilise restoration efforts in the war-torn region had taken its toll on relics dating back 10,000 years, fund organisers said.

Some 10,000 sites in Iraq alone have come under siege, most recently from looting after the 2003 US occupation there.

"It is not only the heritage of Iraq that is at stake," Feisal Amin al-Istrabadi, Iraq's deputy United Nations ambassador said.

"World heritage is at stake."

The Iraqi sites include the temple precinct at Babylon, in the region where Babylonian King Hammurabi enacted the first-known code of law. Over 1000 artefacts have been stolen from the region and resurfaced on the international market, the deputy ambassador said.

Gunfire between insurgents and international forces in the area had halted much of the restoration work.

"Time is of the essence here," said John Stubbs, vice-president of programmes at the World Monuments Fund.

For some areas, the only thing they could do was "wait, watch and pray"..

Though many of the endangered sites are ancient, others are from the more recent past, including Sir Ernest Shackleton's 1908 expedition hut in Antarctica, a collection of early modern architecture in Asmara, Eritrea, and American author Ernest Hemingway's house "Finca Vigia" built in 1886 in Cuba.

Also on the list is the Modernist building at 2 Columbus Circle in New York, which faces extensive changes as it becomes the Museum of Arts and Design.

- REUTERS