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Saharan rock art site defaced

January 31st, 2008 by Jayme Klein, Production Assistant

The Times of London reports today that United Nations peacekeeping forces have damaged rock art in the Western Sahara. Works at Lajuad, also known as Devil Mountain, were sprayed with graffiti. The art, dating back nearly 6,000 years, “is regarded by the local Sahrawi population as a mystical place of great cultural significance,” says the Times.

Many of those responsible for the vandalism signed their names. They are part of Minurso, a French peacekeeping force, which employs soldiers from nearly 30 countries. The vandals are from many countries, including Croatia, Egypt, Kenya and Russia. In charge of monitoring a ceasefire, they oversee the Moroccan forces, which occupy the area and the Polisario Front, a group fighting for independence.

UN Secretary-General Julian J. Harston has toured the affected sites and is planning action against the soldiers that they are able to identify. Funds are currently being solicited from Unesco (the UN’s cultural organization), to restore the art.

Because of these stories, it becomes ever more important for Aluka to continue its work. The digital records of rock art on Aluka will preserve these sites for history should another tragedy like this occur.

The article can be read in full here:

Nick Brooks, who discovered the vandalism, has blogged about it here:

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 12:30 pm and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Saharan rock art site defaced”

  1. Nick Brooks Says:
    February 1st, 2008 at 5:28 pm

    A couple of clarifications should be made here.

    First, MINURSO is a United Nations, not a French, peacekeeping force, although the acronym is French in origin.

    The area in question is not occupied by Moroccan forces - Western Sahara (once the Spanish Sahara and now officially a “disputed, non-self governing territory) is effectively partitioned by a “wall” constructed by Moroccan forces. Morocco occupies the areas north and west of the wall (the majority of Western Sahara), while the areas east and south of the wall, in which the graffiti was recorded, are controlled by the Polisario independence movement. MINURSO peacekeepers monitor the activities of both the Moroccan and Polisario forces, and also monitor the ceasefire that has been in place since 1991. MINURSO was tasked with organising a referendum on self-determination for Western Sahara, but this has failed to materialise due to apparently irreconcilable differences between the parties to the conflict.

    Julian Harston is the UN Secretary General’s Special Representative in Western Sahara and the civilian head of MINURSO.

    More information on the work of the Western Sahara Project, as a result of which the graffiti was publicised, can be found at: http://www.cru.uea.ac.uk/~e118/WS/wsahara.htm.

    Nick Brooks

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