Global Candlelight Vigil for the Iraq Museum
2007 Candlelight Vigil
Tuesday April 10, 2007 - Thursday April 12, 2007
Worldwide
On the fourth anniversary of the looting of the Iraq Museum, more than 7,000 items have yet to be recovered and archaeological sites throughout the country continue to suffer from the irreparable damage of wide-scale looting.
Although the plunder of the Iraq Museum aroused considerable awareness to the problems facing cultural heritage worldwide due to looting and the illicit antiquities trade, since 2003, media attention has dwindled significantly, even as the looting and destruction escalate. To commemorate the events in Iraq and ensure that awareness of the global situation is not lost, SAFE sponsored the Candlelight Vigil for the Iraq Museum—a series of commemorative events to take place around the world, between April 10th and 12th, the days that the museum was looted in 2003.
First, we produced a video invitation featuring Dr. Donny George Youkhanna, the former Director of the Iraq Museum. The video was a call to action and an appeal to gather together in a moment of remembrance. We also invited anyone who held a vigil to share their experiences with us and send us photographs from their events. To date, the video of Donny George has been viewed thousands of times on Youtube.
We were moved by the grassroots support we received. Organizations, listserves, bloggers and other individuals around the world helped spread the word. The first group to hold a vigil and send photographs to SAFE was the staff of the Iraq Museum. Though the Museum is not open to the public due to the difficult security conditions, staff members valiantly continue their work to preserve the remaining artifacts of the Museum’s vast collections. These photographs lent a poignant human face to the tragedy. By April 14th, more than twenty groups in England, Canada, Iraq, Lebanon, South Africa and China had shared their vigils with SAFE.
Individuals and organizations participated in the Vigil in various ways. Groups met at museums, art galleries, cafes, schools and other public spaces. Most groups showed our video of Dr. Youkhanna and lit candles. In London, a vigil featured musical performances, while school children wrote a poem after their vigil in Toronto. The ceremony at the Cultural Center of Bet-Nahrain in California, was aired on AssyriaSat to viewers in 40 countries. Archaeologists, professors, cultural property lawyers and authors took part and spoke to attendees about the tragedy of Iraq and the ongoing loss of cultural heritage around the world. Most of all, ordinary citizens showed their support for Iraq’s cultural heritage, our shared cultural heritage.
By hosting the Global Candlelight Vigil for the Iraq Museum, SAFE has established an important date of remembrance and will continue to speak out about the tragedy of the Iraq museum and the ongoing looting of Iraq’s archaeological sites.
—Leah Bevington, SAFE Member
