Cyber Ethiopia

We looked last week at five important documents related to the question of the Aksum Obelisk looted from Ethiopia on the personal orders of the Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, and to this date still not returned, in violation of two international agreements (1947 and 1997). We turn now to examine nine further historical documents: 1. The Italo-Ethiopian Agreement of 1956 One of the Italian Government's least honourable acts in the whole obelisk story was the conclusion, on 5 March 1956, of an entirely new Italo-Ethiopian.This document, which shocked many who read it, relegated the question of the obelisk's return to an appendix, Appendix C, which violated both the letter and the spirit of the Italian Peace Treaty of 1947. The Treaty had specified, it will be recalled, that

Italy assumed the responsibility of returning to Ethiopia, within eighteen months, all loot taken from that country. The Appendix replaced that obligation by the statement that Italy agreed to transport the obelisk from Rome as far as Naples. What had been envisaged in the Peace Treaty as an act of restitution to Ethiopia, the victim of aggression, was thus transformed, by a sleight of hand, into the statement, in Appendicx C, that the aggressor would merely move the obelisk from one part of Italian territory to another! Good Faith Doubted The good faith of the Italian Government in drafting Article C can only be doubted. The Italian negotiators either believed that the obelisk would be transported from Naples to Ethiopia by winged angels, or that the Ethiopian Government, then facing acute economic difficulties, would be financially unable to repatriate the looted artifact, which would therefore remain in Rome as they had all along wished. Appendix C nevertheless contained the statement that the obelisk was "subject to restitution to Ethiopia", and that it could "be freely and without charge or hindrance exported from Italy on such vessel as the Imperial Ethiopian Government may choose". Reading the 1956 Agreement we can only conclude that while Fascist Italy had been guilty of looting the obelisk in the first place, post-Fascist Italy has been almost as guilty, for it is post-war, "democratic" Italy which has been guilty of almost interminable prevarication. To see this has only to remember that we are now nearly at the end of the year 2000, and the agreements for the obelisk’s restitution were made in 1947 and 1997! The 1956 treaty was not published, but as its terms gradually became known, it led, as the present writer can testify form personal knowledge, to burning Ethiopian indignation. 2. The Ethiopian Parliament's Resolution. The non-return of the Obelisk, in violation of the Italian Peace Treaty of 1947, and the implications of the dishonorable 1956 bilateral agreement, when this became known, not surprisingly greatly irritated members of the Ethiopian Parliament. At the beginning of 1970, which you may remember, dear reader, was thirty years ago, indignant members of the 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... "Unwilling to Return..." "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 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, Italy should not be given the honour of a visit by His Imperial Majesty". Strong words these, but in the circumstances entirely understandable! 3. Francesco Pierotti's book Vita in Etiopia. "We Italians Like Old Stones" Some idea of Italian thinking, and arrogance, at this time, can be gleaned from a near-contemporary book, Francesco Pierotti's Vita in Etiopia. This work, which is undated, noted that the Aksum obelisk was still standing in Rome, where Mussolini had placed it, because, as Pierotti wrote, "We Italians like old stones". Many Ethiopians were not amused. Nor was the present writer: Commenting on these words thirty years ago, in an article in "Dialogue", the publication of the Ethiopian Teachers' Association, in March 1970, he observed: "We wonder whether there are not Ethiopians too who 'like old stones', especially one fashioned by their fore-fathers and stolen from them as the result of a bestial poison-gas invasion which shocked the world?" 4. A Former Italian Ambassador Lets the Cat Out of the Bag Official Italy thinking, a generation later, was revealed in an article by a former Italian ambassador to Ethiopia. Pastucci-Righi. In this article, which appeared in the highly esteemed Italian publication Professione Diplomatico, he claimed that Ethiopian public opinion "knew nothing of the obelisk", and "attached no sentimental or cultural, let alone economic value to its return". 5. First Italian Press Coverage of the Obelisk Issue Concern over the non-return of the obelisk was shortly afterwards voiced by the present writer in an article in the Rome daily newspaper L'Unita, of 6 April, 1991. It noted that "numerous Ethiopian historical objects and works of art were looted, including one of the famous obelisks of Axum, and remains in Rome despite official requests for restitution on the part of the Ethiopian Government". Several months later, Renato Bruno Imperiale, who styled himself "an old friend of Ethiopia", echoed my comment, when he wrote to the same paper, on 2 November. Recalling that the Italian war criminals Badoglio and Graziani had not been tried for their crimes (which we have seen was quite true), he asked, "Why has the obelisk of Axum, which is still in Rome in front of the FAO building, not been returned to Ethiopia?" 6. Petition by Three Italian Scholars This letter provoked three Italian scholars, Vincenzo Francaviglia, Giuseppe Claudio Infranca and Alberto Paolo Rossi, who were disquieted by their Government's failure to honour its international commitments, to sign a forceful petition urging the necessity of the obelisk's return. The text was duly published in L'Unita and La Repubblica, both of which appeared on 28 December 1991. 7. The Ethiopian Petition of the 500 News of this petition immediately reached Addis Ababa, where a supporting Petition was launched by Ethiopian and other supporters of restitution. It declared: "We recall that Italy has the obligation under Article 37 of the Peace Treaty of 1947 to return to Ethiopia all articles looted after October 3, 1935, the date of the fascist invasion. We therefore endorse the request of the three Italian scholars... and therefore petition for the return of the obelisk to its original place". This petition was immediately signed by over 500 Ethiopian scholars and others. They included a former Prime Minister, Lij Mikael Imru; a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dejazmach Zewde Gabre Sellassie; the leading artist, Maitre-Artiste Afewerk Tekle; the playwright-laureate, Tsegaye Gabre-Medhin; the poet, Asssefa Gabre Mariam; the historian, Ato Tekle-Tsadik Mekuria, and the geographer and human rights activist, Professor Mesfin Wolde Mariam. Numerous subsidiary petitions were also launched: by Shiferaw Bekele, among Addis Ababa University students; by Fikre Tolosa, among Ethiopians in the United States; by Zaude Haile Mariam, among those in Sweden, etc., etc. 8. African Diplomatic Interest This string of Ethiopian demands for restitution evoked considerable interest, and support, in other parts of Africa. The most dramatic support was voiced by Chief Segun Olusola, the then Nigerian Ambassador in Addis Ababa, and a poet of great culture. On 11 March 1992, he issued an important statement, in which he declared: Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Egypt "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 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. "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". A similar statement was issued, on 18 March, by the Ambassador of Zimbabwe, Mr T.A.G Makombe, and by the internationally prestigious Egyptian antiquities department. 9. Welcoming Statement by the Ethiopian Foreign Statement Statements by the two above-mentioned African diplomats won widespread Ethiopian approval, most notably from the Ethiopian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ato Seyoum Mesfin. In a letter, of 7 April, to the present writer, he wrote: "I am writing to express the profound appreciation of the Transitional government of Ethiopia for the effort underway to have the Axum obelisk looted by the Italian fascist invaders returned to its rightful place. "I can assure you, dear Professor Pankhurst, of the Transitional Government's whole-hearted support for this noble cause". Such was the background to the founding, by historian Belai Gidei, Fitawrari Amede Lemma, Mammo Wudneh and others, of a private Aksum Obelisk Return Committee.