Libyan Interior minister denounces antiques trafficking as threat to security
Tripoli, Libya (PANA) - The Libyan minister of Interior of the Government of National Accord, Fathi Bachagha, Wednesday condemned the illegal trade in antiques as a threat to the country’s identity and ancient civilization.
He, therefore, stressed “the need to pay attention to the antiques and archaeological and tourist collections and face their smugglers with firmness and force".
Bachagha said this during a visit to the seat of the tourist police and the agency for the protection of antiques in Tripoli where he was received by the agency’s chief, Colonel Abdelghani Rhouma.
Bachagha, during his visit, inspected the departments and divisions of the agency, listened to the appropriate explanations on the work of those departments and sections.
He also held a meeting with the officers of the agency’s tourist police and the agency for the protection of antiques.
During his interviews, the minister underlined "the need to back the tourist police and the protection of antiques as strategic organ and one of the pillars of the ministry of Interior".
The agency’s chief, Colonel Abdelghani Rhouma, offered a shield on behalf of the employees to the minister of Interior in appreciation of his efforts since he took office as Interior minister.
Over the past few years, Libya has been facing systematic pillaging of its archaeological resources and antiques of Roman, Turkish, Arab secular civilisations handed down from generation to generation.
The security chaos shaking the country has facilitated the trafficking in antiques that had been preserved all over the Libyan national territory.
UNESCO subsequently made an urgent appeal to safeguard Libya’s cultural and historic heritage through meetings and assistance programmes with the country’s authorities.
-0- PANA BY/BEH/MSA/RA 12Aug2020
