[CPProt.net] IRAQ: ITALIAN FUNDS FOR NASIRIYA MUSEUM'S MAKEOVER

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

IRAQ: ITALIAN FUNDS FOR NASIRIYA MUSEUM'S MAKEOVER

Nasiriya, 17 August (AKI) - Italian troops stationed in the southern Iraqi
city of Nasiriya, will provide 125,000 dollars for the restoration of the
local museum which has been looted and vandalised since the fall of Saddam
Hussein's regime. "Work will be carried out by an Iraqi company under the
surpervision of the Italian military," the museum's director, Abd al-Amir
al-Hamdani, told Adnkronos International (AKI). "Restoration will include
the building's first floor, with seven separate exhibition halls, including
prehistoric, Sumero-Babylonian, Assyric and Islamic sections, as well as
exhibition space on the second floor and the museum's library and the
administration offices," al-Hamdani explained. 


Italian police are holding a training course in Nasiriya for Iraqi guards
who will be in charge of safeguarding their country's museums and
archaelogical sites.

The region of Dhi Qar, where Nasiriya is situated, contains numerous
archaelogical excavation sites, many of which have been pillaged in the
aftermath of Saddam's toppling, when the country's security forces
effectively ceased to exist.

Italy's 3,000-strong military contingent in Iraq is primarily involved in
security operations but also provides assistance to the local population
with water supplies and education projects.