Cyber Ethiopia

The above is in effect the question which was addressed, in the Ethiopian Federal Parliament, last month, to the Ethiopian Minister of Culture, HE Ambassador Teshome Toga. "Different Answers"/ "Great Public Resentment" The questioner drew attention to the fact that "different answers" to the question about the return of the Aksum obelisk had been given at "different times", and declared that the non-return of the obelisk had "become the source of great public resentment". "Origin of Resentment" Peace Treaty Violated This "great public resentment", we may comment, is neither surprising, nor new. Protest at the looting of the obelisk goes back to as early as 1937 when Emperor Haile Sellassie denounced this act of plunder in his Address to the Churches of the World -as noted for example

in the second volume of his Autobiography. Subsequently, at the end of World War II, the Italian Government agreed to the Italian Peace Treaty with the United Nations, which was signed in 1947. Article 37 of this treaty declared: "Within eighteen months... Italy shall restore all works of art, religious objects, archives and objects of historical value belonging to its nationals and removed from Ethiopia to Italy since October 3 1935". This agreement, as you can see from the web site www Aksum Obelisk and the article by Jarrett A. Lobell in the May/June 2002 of the American journal Archaeology, has been violated by successive Italian Governments for over fifty years. Since this Treaty was signed by all then United Nations members, we are entitled to ask what these States have done to insist that this document, to which they are co-signatories, be considered as more than a piece of paper. What have they done in fact to urge the Italian Government carryout its obligations under Article 37? Italy's failure to abide by the Peace Treaty in relation to the Obelisk, has led, we may add, to many protests, both inside and outside Ethiopia. To cite but one notable Ethiopian example: "Break Off Diplomatic Relations" At the beginning of 1970, members of the Ethiopian Parliament passed the following resolution: "Recalling the agreement whereby Italy has the responsibility, at her own expense, to return the obelisk of Aksum, which she has placed in Rome to commemorate fascist Italy's poison-gas invasion which was condemned by the world... The Aksum Oblisk in Rome 2002 Photo by Alberton Imperiali, an Italian in the forefront of the Oblisk Return agitation in Italy "Observing that Italy has proved unwilling to return Ethiopia's ancient monument, a remainder of the fame of her kings... and keeps it in Rome in memory of the aggression of the Fascists... "Realising that it is undesirable to delay, let alone to neglect, the return of the monument of the history and honour of the country... "All members [of the Parliament] agree that pressure should be applied, for the return of the obelisk and other historical objects, by refusing permits to persons coming to the country, by suspension of trade, and as a last resort by breaking off diplomatic relations. "The Parliament urges that until the return of the obelisk and historical objects are returned, Italy should not be given the honour of a visit by His Imperial Majesty". A Resolute Voice from Nigeria This view was echoed over the decades by innumerable Ethiopians, as well as by people of goodwill from all over the world. One of them was our friend Chief Segun Olusola, the Nigerian Ambassador in Addis Ababa. He issued a statement, on 11 March 1992, in which he declared: "Deeply conscious of the importance of Africa's cultural heritage, and of the struggle for its preservation, we extend our support to the people of Ethiopia in their efforts to obtain the return of the ancient of Aksum obelisk now in Rome. "We are aware that the Aksum obelisk was taken from Ethiopia in 1937 on the personal orders of the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. "We are no less aware that Italy in the Peace Treaty of 1947 with the United Nations, agreed, in Article 37, to return, at its own expense, all articles looted from Ethiopia after October 3, 1935 [i.e. the date of the fascist invasion]. "The obelisk, as we all know, has not yet been returned in accordance with that international agreement: it stands in Rome today, as in Mussolini's day, and we sympathise with the Ethiopian people in their just demand for its return. "We believe that this beautiful and historic monument is important not only for Ethiopia, but also for all Africa. It is a creation in which all Africans can take pride". Foreign Scholars Demand for the return of the obelisk were also made over the years by innumerable scholars of Ethiopian - and Italian - affairs. Such scholars included Professors Angelo Del Boca and Vicenzo Francaviglia in Italy; Professor Sven Rubenson in Sweden; Professors Donald Crummey, Ephraim Isaac, Frederick Gamst, Peter Garretson and Alberto Sbacchi in the United States; Professors Christopher Clapham, Richard Greenfield, Frederick Halliday, and Denis Mack Smith (the leading British historian of modern Italy) in the United Kingdom; Professors Yuri Kobischanov (an expert on Aksum) and Maria Rait in Russia; Professor Haggai Erlich in Israel; Professor Katsuyoshi in Japan; and many others, including the entire teaching staff of the African Studies department of the Jawarharlal University in India. Transporting the Axsum Oblisk in 1937 Photos: Coutesy Alberton Imperiali The return of the obelisk, as reported in the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs publication Ethioscope, vol. 3, no. 1 (1997) was also urged by the present Ethiopian Patriarch, Abun Paulos V, in letters to the Pope of Rome, and the Christian Churches of Africa. Restitution was likewise publicly supported by Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, the former Secretary-General of the United Nations. And from the United States A not dissimilar view was more recently expressed by none other than the present United States Ambassador to Ethiopia, Tibor P. Nagy, Jr. Replying to Professor James Imperato, MD, one of many Italo-Americans demanding the return of the obelisk to Ethiopia, Mr Nagy wrote: "I share your interest in seeing this important national monument restored to the country from which it came. As you have indicated, the governments of Italy and Ethiopia have negotiated an agreement on the obelisk's return. I have made sure that Washington decision-makers understand the political importance the Ethiopian Government attaches to this matter, and I would strongly support U.S. facilitation of the monument's return". What the Minister of Culture Also Said But to return to the Ethiopian Minister of Culture's important statement, which has perhaps not received the attention it deserves. Ambassador Teshome Toga went on to declare, according to the official Parliamentary transcript, that an agreement had been made with the Italian Government, and that the Ethiopian Government had accordingly made all technical and other arrangements for the obelisk's return to Ethiopia. The Agreement of 1997: As for the agreement to which the Minister of Culture here refers, this was concluded between Ethiopia and Italy in the year 1997. This agreement took the form, in fact, of two joint statements. Following a unanimous vote in the Ethiopian Parliament demanding the return of the obelisk, and a huge Petition to the same effect by the citizens of Aksum, an official delegation, led by the Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister, Dr. Tekeda Alemu, visited Rome, met the then Italian Deputy Foreign Minister, Senator Rino Serri, on 4 March, and concluded an agreement with the Italian Government on the following day. This agreement, which, like the Italian Peace Treaty, was duly dishonoured, stated that: "Appreciative of enhancing bilateral relations in every sphere, "Appreciative of the inestimable value of the Aksum Obelisk to Ethiopia, "Fully cognizant of the positive impact of the Obelisk's restitution on the friendship between the two countries, "On the basis of existing Treaties, "The Governments of Ethiopia and Italy have defined procedures for the restitution of the Obelisk now standing in Rome, to Axum". This statement went on to declare that the Italian side "appreciated the central importance that the Ethiopian people and Government attach to the restitution of the obelisk to Axum", and added: "This gesture of great significance would set the seal on the renewed friendship between the two countries and peoples". The text concluded with the forthright, but subsequently violated, statement that the obelisk would be returned "within the current year", i.e. the year 1997. The date 1997, specified above in the above joint statement, was repeated on the occasion of the visit to Rome last month or so later, of another Ethiopian delegation, this time led by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. A further Joint Declaration was issued, on 8 April 1997, which observed: "The Italian Government declared its readiness to shoulder the responsibility for the restitution of the Obelisk to Axum, to be carried out in an operation to be completed by the end of 1997". This agreement has likewise been violated. We may add at this point that the Ethiopian Ministry of Posts, taking the Italian declaration at face value (as it turned out, a great mistake!), duly issues a set of postage stamps, commemorating not the future, but the anticipated actual return of the obelisk! The Ethiopian Ministry's "Arrangements" As for the "arrangements" referred to above by the Minister of Culture, these included, as we all know, identification of the spot formerly occupied by the obelisk, and the excavation there of a large trough into which the returned obelisk should be placed. If you go to Aksum look out for this trough! Recalling that the matter of the obelisk's return had so long been delayed, the Minister of Culture, Ambassador Teshome Toga, went on to state that after the recent change of government in Italy, Prime Minister Meles Zenawi raised the question with his opposite number, Prime Minister Silvio Belusconi. Letters urging the immediate return of the obelisk had thus been despatched from the Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to the Italian Ambassador in Addis Ababa. These letters had urged the immediate return of the obelisk as well as other articles of cultural heritage - but in fact this demand, from the practical point of view, as the Minister said, has gone unheeded.