Jim Shannon, DUP asked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what support the Government is providing to ensure that historical and church buildings in Mosul are rebuilt.
Alistair Burt, Minister of State, replied that ‘The UK condemns Daesh’s destruction of historical and religious buildings in Iraq, whether they be archaeological sites, churches, mosques or temples.
The UK’s Cultural Protection Fund of £30 million is designed to build capacity and capability in conflict zones in order to protect cultural heritage. Over £4 million from the fund has been awarded to Iraq across four projects. £3 million of this has been allocated to the British Museum’s Rescue Archaeology Project. This project supplements the skills of a team of Iraqi national heritage sector workers to assess and record the condition of heritage sites and carry out rescue archaeology as a preliminary to reconstruction at sites damaged by Daesh. The first cohort of Iraqi archaeologists completed their training in 2016 and the second cohort completed their training earlier this year in London.
The UK is also funding: the University of Manchester, working with the State Board for Antiquities and Heritage in Iraq, to survey and document the pre-Islamic Alexandrian city of Charax, as well as 14 other sites in Iraq; and the University of Liverpool to record, preserve and promote understanding of Yezidi heritage and identity