STOP PLUNDER OF YEMENI TREASURES

AMONG the many tragedies taking place in the nearly four-year conflict in Yemen – including the thousands of lives lost, the impoverishment to near-starvation of its people and the ruin of its fragile economy – is the plunder of the country’s valuable and precious ancient cultural heritage by organised criminals and violent extremists.

This all-too-familiar story underscores an urgent need for the US Treasury Department to use its existing sanctions regime to close the US art market to Yemeni blood antiquities.

Historically, Yemen was a meeting ground for some of the earliest contacts and trade between East and West and a crossroads of the ancient incense and spice routes.

As home to the legendary Queen of Sheba, stories about the treasures to be found in Yemen’s markets and the independence of its people were passed across generations, along with a famed tradition of silver design.

Much of this rich history survived for millennia, as Yemen is home to four Unesco World Heritage Sites and national museums that house priceless artefacts.

While media coverage has closely followed the fighting around some of these historic places and collections, it has sadly ignored that this history is being stripped for sale to foreign buyers.

Yemen has warned the UN and the world of this illicit trade, presenting evidence that al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula militants and Houthi rebels are taking a page from the Islamic State playbook by arming their cause with the plunder and sale of Yemen’s ancient treasures.

Three major museums – the Taiz National Museum, the Aden National Museum and the National Museum of Zinjibar – have been pillaged and largely cleared of their collections. International experts have corroborated these reports.

There is a good reason to believe that the US is a destination for pillaged Yemeni artefacts because it remains the largest art market in the world. Research by the Antiquities Coalition demonstrates that, over the past decade, the US has imported more than $8million (R115m) worth of declared art and antiquities from Yemen. There is reason to suspect that the total is much higher.

Despite Washington’s growing awareness of the terrorist financing threat from cultural racketeering, US markets remain wide open to conflict antiquities from Yemen.

In other countries, the State Department has used available diplomatic tools to negotiate bilateral agreements to close US markets to illegally imported antiquities. Congress has also taken legislative action to sanction efforts to import illicit pieces from Iraq and Syria.

But US inaction in Yemen raises the likelihood that American collectors and institutions are helping sustain the country’s violent conflict through apparently legal purchases of stolen artefacts.

The UN, with support from the international community, including the US, is engaged in humanitarian efforts and delicate negotiations to bring about a political solution to Yemen’s conflict in accordance with Security Council Resolution 2216 and other established terms of reference.

In the meantime, the Treasury Department should use its authority to issue an emergency executive order adding Yemeni antiquities to the list of sanctioned items prevented from import to the US. Such action would enjoy broad support in Congress.

The US is leading the fight against terrorism, violent extremism and organised crime around the world, and it also has a proud tradition of safeguarding the world’s cultural treasures during times of conflict.

But it can do so much more to help Yemen today. Let’s start by saving its history. | The Washington Post