According to the Report on the Implementation of the International Humanitarian Law with regards to the Protection of Cultural Heritage in the Occupied Tskhinvali Region, Georgia an extensive damage to cultural heritage has occurred to all aspects of cultural heritage in the affected area: movable, immovable, and intangible.
The comprehensive report, which was prepared jointly by the National Committee of the Blue Shield Georgia (GNCBS), UNESCO Chair in Cultural Property Protection and Peace Team at Newcastle University assessed 737 sites in total in the occupied Tskhinvali region.
Of these, 413 could not be located on the satellite imagery; however, eyewitnesses and media information allowed assessments at 6 of these.
Of the 324 sites that were located, 25 had such poor imagery no condition estimate was possible. Just 36 sites of 737 were in a Good condition, whilst nearly 20% (1/5) of sites for which information is available are Destroyed (although this includes sites that have long been in ruinous condition).
The findings confirm the earlier findings by a number of international organizations, including the Human Rights Watch indicating that the occupying and South Ossetian forces sought to ethnically cleanse the villages along the occupation line.
Most of the sites damaged during and after the hostilities are museums and religious buildings. Most of the damage to immovable cultural heritage occurred along the Didi and Patara Liakhvi river valleys. Some of the destroyed villages are now used as military training grounds. Two sites are believed to have been destroyed by the construction of a military facility, 38 are within 500m of a base, and a further 62 are within one kilometre. Military training has been reported by eyewitnesses at a further 7 sites, just over 1km from various military bases.
According to the report, approximately one in four of the fortifications, churches and religious buildings located and assessed were damaged by neglect and lack of maintenance. The report notes that the actual number is likely to be higher, but many neglected sites are now so overgrown that they cannot be seen on satellite images available through Google Earth.
According to the report, the region’s movable cultural heritage has also suffered extensive damage as a result of the fighting and tensions in the region, particularly museums. Of the six museums in the occupied Tskhinvali region in 2008, one was closed in the 1990s and its collection evacuated; two others were damaged during the fighting. One of these was damaged again in 2004 when it was targeted by Ossetian separatist artillery (some walls and roofs collapsed). During the fighting in 2008, four were severely damaged or destroyed (including the site damaged in the 1990s and 2004), as well as an associated storage facility.
Other problems related to movable heritage include “black archaeology”, which includes Illegal excavation, looting and illegal trade. The issue of illegal excavation for archaeological finds, often using metal detectors, has been raised repeatedly by Georgians, both by official authorities and heritage professionals.
The report states that the intangible heritage of the occupied Tskhinvali region, like the tangible heritage, faces conservation challenges and is at risk of loss. Displacement and access restrictions pose critical challenges to intangible heritage. For example, according to a survey of IDPs, beer brewing, once common and using local ingredients, is now rare. Ceramic pottery production is threatened by population dispersion, loss of access to materials, and the ageing and death of many of those with the skills.
Disinformation campaigns are also seen as a critical threat. These include the changing of place names by the de facto authorities, the alteration of religious histories, and the publication of articles and books presenting alternative histories of the region that do not associate it with Georgia. To make matters worse, many ethnic Georgians, particularly in Akhalgori, are denied access to their mother tongue.
Importantly, the damage has not only occurred during the actual periods of hostilities, but has continued since then and continues to this day. Factors include illegal interventions that alter the historic fabric of sites, the construction of military facilities and other new infrastructure in the vicinity of sites, and general neglect.
The report stresses that the slow erosion of Georgia’s cultural heritage is part of a wider narrative of loss. The lives of the people who owned and used the heritage – whose ancestors may have built the sites, who visited them, who worshipped in the churches and synagogues – have been deeply affected by the conflict in ways that go beyond their immediate needs. Not only have they lost access to their sites, but their traditions, practices and ways of life, passed down through generations, are disrupted and in some cases at risk of permanent loss.
The demolition of historic Georgian villages, the loss of authentic fabric at sites and the alteration of churches are part of a wider revision of the whole landscape, which is also evident in the changing of place names and the revision of historical and religious narratives. Actions to protect and conserve the heritage are hampered by lack of access and monitoring is extremely difficult.
The report notes that most activities by the Georgian government and international actors (proposed, attempted, and realized) at all levels – have been hindered by “stringent” access restrictions.
Among the recommendations that the report provides are the following:
To all parties to the conflict: to respect and abide by international law, and take all possible steps to implement it into domestic law.
To the Georgian government:
- Identify potential Commissioner-Generals: Provide a list to UNESCO of people capable of fulfilling the function of a Commissioner-General for Cultural Property;
- Appoint Commissioner-Generals: Ask for each party to the conflict to appoint a Commissioner General for Cultural Property;
- Appoint National Representatives: Appoint a national Representative for cultural property;
- Appoint Protecting Powers who can accredit delegates to facilitate communication;
- Special Protection: Nominate immovable sites of very great importance and centers containing monuments on the territory of the Tskhinvali Region for special protection.
- Promote utilization of UN Fora to foster the implementation of the Hague Convention;
- Liaise with foreign governments to convey the message that archaeological teams should not request excavation permits from a government that their own government does not recognize, breaching professional Codes of Conduct, and where those countries are signatories to the 1954 Hague Convention, in violation of Article 5.
- Create and share an Inventory – comprehensive list of cultural property (including archives, libraries, objects, and other forms of cultural property), with geo-coordinates, for general protection under the 1954 Hague Convention;
- Enhance protection: demonstrate the international importance of key sites by nominating those of the greatest importance on the territory of the Tskhinvali Region for enhanced protection, potentially to be placed under Provisional Enhanced Protection until it can be confirmed that all requirements are met, etc.
- Prevent illicit trafficking (envisages improving information and information sharing;
- Improve national legislation, guidance and prosecution.
This post is also available in: ქართული (Georgian) Русский (Russian)
