Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

DATE=6/15/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=IRAQ / RECOVERED ARTIFACTS (L-O)

NUMBER=2-316733

BYLINE=ALISHA RYU

DATELINE=BAGHDAD

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

HEADLINE: Iraqi Police Recover Stolen Artifacts in Sting Operation

INTRO: Security officials in Iraq say a sting operation has recovered hundreds of stolen artifacts destined for overseas black markets. Correspondent Alisha Ryu in Baghdad reports the artifacts were illegally dug up from archeological sites around the ancient city of Babylon, about 90-kilometers south of Baghdad.

TEXT: A senior official in Iraq's interior ministry, General Muhssin Ali, says Iraqi police recently received a tip from an informant about a gang, which had been digging up Babylonian artifacts and trying to sell them to smugglers.

/// ALI ACT IN ARABIC - ESTAB AND UNDER ///

General Ali says a sting operation was put together, using policemen to pose as potential buyers. He says the operation resulted in the arrest of four men early last week.

The arrest marked a rare victory against criminals who have been looting thousands of archeological sites in the country for the past year to make a quick profit. The police say criminals are asking as little as 100-dollars for a crate of what would normally be viewed as priceless archeological finds.

Among the objects recovered last week were dozens of statues of people and animals, water jugs, bowls, and a variety of items decorated in cuneiform, a system of writing developed five-thousand years ago by the Sumerians who populated the lower Tigris and Euphrates valley area known as Mesopotamia.

Iraq has asked its neighbors to help catch smugglers who take the artifacts across the country's porous borders to buyers in Asia and Europe.

The director of the Iraqi National Museum, Donny George, recently told reporters that several countries, including Jordan, Syria, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, had cooperated with Baghdad in seizing hundreds of items smuggled across their borders after the fall of Saddam Hussein in April 2003.

But Mr. George says he believes criminals are still able to smuggle Iraqi antiquities through Turkey and Iran. He notes that 15-thousand objects stolen from the national museum are missing.

The Iraqi interim government says it is planning to set up a 13-hundred member antiquities police force, which will patrol archeological sites. But, with 10-thousand official sites and another 90-thousand unofficial ones scattered across the country, few people believe Iraq's ancient treasures will ever be fully protected from thieves and smugglers. (SIGNED)

NEB/AR/MAR/RAE