Since the beginning of the year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has started conducting workshops for the Department of Antiquities, Customs and Tourism police, Libyan Interpol and the Criminal Investigation Department to combat the trafficking of cultural property in Libya, where the deteriorated security situation has exacerbated the spread of such trade.

Since the beginning of the year, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has started conducting workshops for the Department of Antiquities, Customs and Tourism police, Libyan Interpol and the Criminal Investigation Department to combat the trafficking of cultural property in Libya, where the deteriorated security situation has exacerbated the spread of such trade.

UNESCO Coordinator of Libyan culture Chiara Dezzi Baradeschi conducted one of a series of workshops held between November 19 and 26 in Shahat, in eastern Libya, concerning the historical monuments sector.

Libya has five international historical sites: Sabratha, Shahat, Lebda, Akakus and Ghadames. They all enjoy uniqueness of their own that is not only historical or archaeological, but also traditional as well as environmental, says Baradeschi.

Chiara Dezzi Baradeschi, what is the purpose behind conducting workshops on archeology in Libya?

The current workshop held in Shahat aims at protecting Libyan antiquities. It is the third workshop this year. The first one held in Tripoli and the second in Sabratha were concerned with regions in Tripoli and Fezzan, while this workshop focused on the correlation between the police and the Department of Antiquities.

The workshop we held in Tripoli included 70 Libyan trainees. It was the first phase for setting a number of recommendations and constituted the base for our future work.

The first recommendation was the dire need for aware police as well as Customs and Border Guards, in order to combat antiquities looters.

 The second stressed the need for Tourism Police at archaeological sites and on the country’s borders as well as ports.

The third called for establishing a strict governing legal framework within which all concerned bodies operate. The fourth recommendation concerned the security of museums and antiquities storage. The fifth underlined the importance of documenting existing antiquities. Finally, we recommended establishing proper organized communication between all involved parties including the Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Culture, Tourism Police, Ports Police, Customs, public and Mass media that must raise people’s awareness about their civilized heritage and collective memory in addition to the support of researchers at Libyan universities and abroad.

Does holding workshops on combating antiquities theft by UNESCO indicate justified concerns?

We started our mission last April and we can say there are increasing fears in this regard. We are trying to document what is happening and working on raising people’s awareness about antiquities theft to prevent any further incidents.

Numerous pieces have been stolen from Libya in the 1990s and even earlier and have recently appeared on the international market. Some of the stolen pieces were restored to Libya in 2012, including the head of the statue of Domitilla, which was found by a Libyan expert in London and brought back to Libya by the then Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti during his official visit to Tripoli on January 21, 2012.

With which security authorities do you cooperate to bring back the stolen artifacts? Have you sought support of Interpol?

In 1970, UNESCO issued a convention criminalizing antiquities theft and Libya was one of the signatories that asserted the importance of documentation and the necessity to have a police apparatus to follow up on the looted pieces.

UNESCO works with a several organizations to combat looting of antiquities including the Interpol, Italian police, World Council of Museums and World Customs Organization. It is important to cooperate with these authorities since they can provide proper protection and procedures.

The work depends on the close collaboration between these organizations at the local and international levels. When an antiquity is lost, you have to find a way to cooperate with foreign bodies especially the police, customs and judiciary.

It is a complicated process that includes several organizations for combating crimes. This is the kind of support that can be provided by UNESCO in addition to targeted training.

One of the most important outcomes of the 1970 convention was establishing awareness among people and cooperation among organizations.

Is the Libyan government committed to its role in this concern?

UNESCO is collaborating with the Department of Antiquities and the Ministry of Culture. The funding of the program is divided between the Libyan and Italian governments. Through this program, we train people to be able to transfer their acquired awareness to the general public.

Is the Libyan worker in the archaeological sector competent enough to protect this heritage?

You know that technical training needs a long time as technology and systems are always developing. Thus, training is not a waste of money. However, the problem with Libya is that it underwent times where it was hard for trainers to get inside. Now we hope that this would be the start for a long-term training plan.

All the work done by UNESCO and the other organizations including the workshops, which are hoped to serve this end, depend on being linked to a national initiative that focuses on the youth to give them the opportunity to get involved.

How serious are the concerns that UNESCO will move out some of the Libyan historical sites from the world heritage list?

These sites must be protected under certain laws. Protection is highly important and if not properly exerted, they will disappear. Thus, intervention must be made at the right time along with providing training and protection.