On May 14, 2015, the Antiquities Coalition and Middle Eastern Institute joined with the Egyptian Military Dictatorship and some other authoritarian Arab governments to announce a "Cairo Declaration" aimed at clamping down on sales of Middle Eastern antiquities just two days before Egypt's military controlled court system imposed a death sentence on Egypt's first Democratically elected President, Mohamed Morsi, for his part in a prison break that took place before he achieved high office.
While CPO supports tackling looting at the source, it's a fair question whether private property rights and rule of law will be respected in the process.
Or, is it far more likely that the effort will have all the same hallmarks of the Morsi persecution where “Due process, regard for evidence, and minimum standard of justice have been tossed aside in favor of draconian injustice.”
And it's also a fair question, does the archaeological lobby much care?
It's quite unsurprising that the world's Excavation Permit fondlers are not up-in-arms about the military regime currently making a mockery of Human Rights in Egypt, or at the very least, boycotting the country in protest at the mass death sentences showering down like confetti.
ReplyDeleteSome hopes, eh?
Best wishes
John Howland
England