{"id":1093,"date":"2012-08-20T18:56:44","date_gmt":"2012-08-20T17:56:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scolma.org\/?p=1093"},"modified":"2012-08-21T11:49:12","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T10:49:12","slug":"scolma-statement-on-the-situation-in-mali","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/?p=1093","title":{"rendered":"SCOLMA Statement on the Situation in Mali"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><strong>SCOLMA Statement on the Situation in Mali<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" align=\"center\">SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa) adds its voice to the deep concern\u00a0expressed in many quarters about current events in Mali. In particular, we share the concerns raised by the International Committee of the Blue Shield and the UNESCO World Heritage Committee about the actual and potential loss of Mali\u2019s cultural heritage.<\/p>\n<p>Following a coup in Mali in March 2012, opposition forces have taken over a large part of the north of the country. Timbuktu, which is a World Heritage Site, is currently under the control of Ansar Dine. This organisation was responsible for the destruction of ancient graves and the door to a mosque in Timbuktu in late June.<\/p>\n<p>SCOLMA is deeply concerned about the humanitarian implications of the current situation in Mali, where there have been some casualties, and many more people have been forced to flee their homes. As librarians and archivists, we are also particularly worried about the fate of the many thousands of manuscripts preserved in Timbuktu in both institutions and many<br \/>\nprivate collections. This material is of great international significance and<br \/>\nconstitutes a key part of Africa\u2019s literary, historical and cultural heritage. Current events have already compromised the storage conditions in which many of these items are held, and we fear that they may become a target of deliberate destruction.<\/p>\n<p>SCOLMA therefore calls on all parties to respect Mali\u2019s cultural heritage, including supporting the efforts of Malian archivists and librarians to safeguard these priceless collections. We also call on all parties to respect and safeguard the lives and livelihoods of civilians during the current conflict.<\/p>\n<p>August 2012<br \/>\nSCOLMA is the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.scolma.org\/\">www.scolma.org<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p><em>For the International Committee of the Blue Shield:<\/em><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.icomos.org\/en\/what-we-do\/disseminating-knowledge\/newsletters\/475-blue-shield-statement-on-mali\">http:\/\/www.icomos.org\/en\/what-we-do\/disseminating-knowledge\/newsletters\/475-blue-shield-statement-on-mali<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>For the UNESCO World Heritage Committee:<\/em><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/whc.unesco.org\/en\/news\/907\">http:\/\/whc.unesco.org\/en\/news\/907<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SCOLMA Statement on the Situation in Mali SCOLMA (the UK Libraries and Archives Group on Africa) adds its voice to the deep concern\u00a0expressed in many quarters about current events in Mali. In particular, we share the concerns raised by the International Committee of the Blue Shield and the UNESCO World Heritage Committee about the actual [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1105,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1093"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1158,"href":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1093\/revisions\/1158"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scolma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}