ACTIVISTS, officials and historians have condemned the self-styled Islamic State (IS) for the destruction of the ancient Assyrian archaeological site of Nimrud in Iraq, saying the militant group’s actions were part of a systematic campaign reminiscent of the Mongol invasion of Arabia that aims to erase millennia of culture and civilisation.

“They are not destroying our present life, or only taking the villages, churches, and homes, or erasing our future — they want to erase our culture, past and civilisation,” said Habib Afram, the president of the Syriac League of Lebanon.

Also read: Islamic State bulldozes ancient Nimrud city in Iraq

Iraq’s tourism and antiquities ministry said on Thursday night that IS had bulldozed the ancient city of Nimrud, south of Mosul, which was conquered by the militants in a lightning advance last summer.

“Daesh terrorist gangs continue to defy the will of the world and the feelings of humanity,” the ministry said, using the group’s Arabic acronym.

“In a new crime in their series of reckless offences they assaulted the ancient city of Nimrud and bulldozed it with heavy machinery, appropriating the archaeological attractions dating back 13 centuries BC,” it said.

The destruction of the site, which became the capital of the neo-Assyrian empire, was confirmed by a local tribal source speaking to Reuters.

The head of Unesco condemned the destruction, saying it amounted to a war crime. “I condemn with the strongest force the destruction of the site at Nimrud,” Irina Bokova said in a statement.

AFP reported that she had spoken to the heads of the UN Security Council and International Criminal Court on the issue.

“We cannot remain silent,” AFP quoted Ms Bokova as saying. “The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage constitutes a war crime. I call on all political and religious leaders in the region to stand up and remind everyone that there is absolutely no political or religious justification for the destruction of humanity’s cultural heritage.”

Historians and officials say militants’ latest assault is part of systematic campaign to erase millennia of culture in region

Historian Tom Holland told the Guardian: “It’s a crime against Assyria, against Iraq, and against humanity. Destroy the past, and you control the future. The Nazis knew this, and the Khmer Rouge — and the Islamic State clearly understand it too.”

The site’s destruction is the latest assault by IS against the ancient heritage of minorities that have coexisted in the Middle East for millennia. Last week, the group destroyed ancient Assyrian artefacts in Mosul museum in a video that triggered widespread condemnation and horror.

The group had earlier burned many priceless manuscripts at the city’s library.

“Islamic State members came to the Nimrud archaeological city and looted the valuables in it and then they proceeded to level the site to the ground,” a tribal source told Reuters. “There used to be statues and walls as well as a castle that Islamic State has destroyed completely.”

“These are not Assyrian artefacts, these are artefacts for all of humanity,” Sanhareb Barsom, an official with the Syriac Union party across the border in Syria’s Hassakeh province, where the Assyrian community has also come under assault by IS, told the Guardian.

The group kidnapped more than 200 Assyrians in a sweep through villages south of the Khabur river last month, where members of the community had settled after the infamous Simele massacre in the 1930s by the then-kingdom of Iraq.

“They are targeting a people as well as its history and culture,” Barsom said, calling for the intervention of international organisations to save Iraq’s heritage. “It’s an attempt to end the existence of a people in their ancestral land.”

IS has repeatedly targeted minorities. Thousands of Chaldeans, Iraq’s main Christian sect, fled their historic homes on the plains of Nineveh in the face of the IS advance, escaping forced conversions.

The group also attempted to starve and enslave thousands of members of the ancient Yazidi sect living around Mount Sinjar, triggering air strikes by the US-led international coalition.

“It’s unprecedented,” said Mr Afram of the Syriac League. “No one did that before.”

He compared the attack to that of the Mongol invasion of Arabia, saying IS militants were going further in their destruction of ancient heritage.

“This is as if they are specialised in erasing whatever signals that we were present in any part of this region,” he added.

Mr Afram condemned the lack of action by the international community, saying there must be a real military action plan, an inter-faith religious campaign to put an end to religious strife, security cooperation, and action by the “Arab armies” to end the crisis.

He said the international community was treating the strife in the Arab world as if it were part of a “basketball game”.

“All this world, from the UN to the Security Council really cares about nothing, they don’t care about people who are slaughtered on a daily basis,” he said. “I don’t believe that there is an international community, or that there are values anymore.”

David Vergili, a member of the European Syriac Union, said IS had done “tremendous damage to the social fabric of the Middle East”.

He added: “Preserving cultural and historical heritage in Iraq and elsewhere should be a concern for the whole civilised world as the birthplace and epicentre of our civilisation.”

By arrangement with the Guardian

Published in Dawn March 7th , 2015

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