Russian aerial attacks increased significantly, launching thousands of drones.
asserted
attacks → increase → drones
Kyiv was intensely bombarded, as were the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa.
asserted
cities → bombard → Mykolaiv
Amid the destruction and loss of life, Odesa reported damage to six Unesco-protected sites, including the salmon-pink 19th Century Alexandru Sturdza House.
asserted
Odesa → report → House
It raised again the question of why it is so hard to hold actors accountable for the destruction of buildings and objects with real cultural significance.
asserted
actors → raise → significance
In the last month alone, Ukraine's Ministry of Culture reported that 148 cultural heritage sites were recorded as damaged or destroyed, including in Odesa.
asserted
sites → report → Odesa
Several Ukrainian activist groups have tried to get accountability by lodging complaints with the International Criminal Court (ICC) against Russia over cultural destruction and looting, but no indictments have been issued.
asserted
indictments → try → destruction
Bijan Rouhani, a senior researcher at the Endangered Archaeology in the Middle East and North Africa project, says that the legal framework may be strong on paper but in practice it almost inevitably falls short.
uncertain
it → say → practice
"No state actor has ever been tried for this offence.
asserted
actor → try → offence
We have satellite imagery, remote sensing and monitoring teams.
asserted
We → have → imagery
"
Looking at the cauldron of conflicts convulsing the world, the question is ever more pressing as to whether effective action is possible to stop the damage being done or ensure accountability when it does.
asserted
it → look → accountability
A casualty of war
The conflict in Ukraine is just one of the panoply of wars in recent years that have revealed once again the disastrous impact of conflict on cultural heritage.
asserted
that → reveal → heritage
Tareq Abu Dayyeh sells craftwork, souvenirs and antiquities in Gaza.
asserted
Dayyeh → sell → Gaza
The Great Omari Mosque features on many of the items he sells.
asserted
he → feature → items
It represents the very identity of Gaza - charting its history through the building's many manifestations from ancient pagan temple to Byzantine church to Seventh Century mosque to Crusader Cathedral and then back to being a mosque.
asserted
It → represent → Cathedral
The Great Omari Mosque was all but destroyed in an Israeli strike in 2023.
asserted
Mosque → destroy → 2023
The Israeli military said the strike was targeting Hamas.
asserted
strike → say → Hamas
Now Dayyeh says his heart is broken every time he sees the ruins.
asserted
he → say → ruins
"When your past is destroyed, you have no present."
asserted
you → destroy → present
The war in Gaza has claimed tens of thousands of lives and an estimated 200,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed by Israeli bombardment.
asserted
buildings → claim → bombardment
But despite the overwhelming death and devastation, such cultural losses run deep.
asserted
losses → run → death
This is a sentiment expressed throughout history by people living through war.
asserted
This → express → war
In Sudan, Lebanon, Yemen and Iran, the alarm has been raised time and time again.
asserted
alarm → raise → Sudan
More than 100 sites in Iran are reported to have been damaged during the aerial war launched by the US and Israel back in February.
asserted
sites → report → February
They include the Unesco-listed Golestan Palace in the capital, Tehran, and Naqsh-e Jahan Square in Isfahan.
asserted
They → include → Isfahan
The civil war in Sudan has further imperilled one of the ancient wonders of the world - the Meroe Pyramids, built during the flourishing civilisation of the Kingdom of Kush.
asserted
war → imperille → Kush
Unesco, which designated Meroe as a World Heritage Site in 2011, has warned that the fighting has halted all preservation work there, leaving the fragile ancient structures prey to erosion from the encroaching sand and vegetation.
asserted
fighting → designate → sand
In response to the massive destruction of World War Two, the first-ever international treaty exclusively dedicated to protecting cultural heritage during armed conflict was adopted in The Hague in 1954.
asserted
treaty → dedicate → 1954
It applies to monuments and architecture, but also works of art and books, requiring states to safeguard and respect cultural property and refrain from any actions that might endanger it.
uncertain
that → apply → it
A Second Protocol to the Convention in 1999 said that any site that has been placed under enhanced protection due to its immense cultural significance must not be made a military target even if it is being used in such a way as to have become a 'military objective' - unless there is no other feasible way of ending its use in that way.
asserted
it → say → way
When the International Criminal Court was established in The Hague in 2002, part of its remit was to bring accountability for deliberate attacks in war against buildings of religious, artistic and educational value as well as historical monuments, which had been defined as war crimes.
asserted
which → establish → crimes
So far, only one case has been successfully brought at the ICC.
asserted
case → bring → ICC
Ahmad al-Faqi al-Mahdi was a jihadist militant leader in Mali who was found guilty of directing attacks that destroyed mausoleums and a mosque in Timbuktu.
asserted
that → find → Timbuktu
He was sentenced to nine years in prison.
asserted
He → sentence → prison
Rouhani says that without the full backing of the major powers and a genuine commitment to international law and its enforcement, the world will simply keep watching the same devastating pattern repeat itself.
asserted
pattern → say → itself
"For most governments, heritage is a secondary concern, unless it becomes useful for propaganda," Rouhani says.
asserted
Rouhani → become → propaganda
"The Hague Convention requires states to build protection into their military rules and to respect cultural property abroad as well as at home.
asserted
Convention → require → home
Looking at the scale of damage in recent conflicts, it is difficult to conclude that these obligations are taken seriously.
asserted
obligations → look → conflicts
In conflicts from Ukraine to Iran to Gaza, where schools and hospitals are seen as permissible military targets by combatants, how likely is it that a museum or pile of ancient stones, however freighted with beauty and history and memory, will be spared?
asserted
museum → see → beauty
In an isolated position in open countryside, a museum dedicated to the 18th Century Ukrainian philosopher and poet Hryhoriy Skovoroda was destroyed by Russian shelling during an overnight attack in 2022.
asserted
museum → dedicate → 2022
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it had left him speechless:
asserted
it → say → him
…and 49 more, not listed.
The Aporia
