The Malta Independent on Sunday 15 th April 2001
Vandals attack Mnajdra temple
Unesco demands explanation from government
Vandals have attacked the 5,000-year-old Mnajdra temple in Qrendi between Thursday and Friday, knocking down at least 60 megaliths and leaving symbols possibly related to the occult on the site.
Although the extent of the damage on the World Heritage Site is still being assessed by the Museums Department, Culture Minister Louis Galea yesterday described the attack as "tragic" and the damage as "irreparable". Museum authorities said this was the worst and most damaging act of vandalism targeted at Malta's world heritage.
The inside of the temple was found ravaged on Friday 13 April by a museums official who was touring the site with a group of students at around 11pm. The site was unattended since 4pm Thursday. The official informed the authorities about what he had found and the police started their investigations.
The site was in fact crowded with police officers and members of the Armed Forces of Malta yesterday conducting their investigations together with archaeologists and forensic experts.
The vandals probably entered the site by cutting off part of the surrounding wire fence. Police sources said the number of toppled stones indicated that there was more than one intruder at the time of the incident.
Crosses and other symbols that are possibly related to satanic rituals were etched on the temple's stones, prompting Duty Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera to appoint a rituals expert to examine the hypothesis that aggressors were also occultists, although this could have been a decoy. The attack could have happened some time between Maundy Thursday and Good Friday.
The minister, who was on site yesterday with Permanent Secretary Paul Attard and Museums Director Anthony Pace, said the temple was extensively destroyed. "This is not a normal case of vandalism," a visibly upset Dr Galea said. "This is tragic. One feels very sad and distressed when one sees all this. It is a very serious incident."
Television cameramen and press photographers, unlike journalists, were allowed inside the damaged temple yesterday. Mr Attard said the vandals had pushed over at least 60 megaliths, probably with the help of crowbars, and broken some of them.
"What didn't happen in 5,000 years happened in an hour," the permanent secretary said. "Here we are talking about one of the world's unique free standing heritage site. One cannot but show emotion at this moment," he said.
The vandals also destroyed the part of the temple which had just been restored since its collapse in 1994. While admitting that security measures could help in preserving better the site, Dr Galea said no amount of security can guarantee that such an incident would not happen again. Asked for his comments about the lack of security, the minister said: "I will give my judgement only after all the investigations are concluded."
Museums department staff had left the site unattended since Thursday at 4pm. Moreover, the only watchman employed by the department was posted at Hagar Qim, far enough from the Mnajdra temple not to notice the vandalism that was going on.
The department intended to start a new fencing project around Mnajdra, Mr Pace said, and the call for tenders would soon be made. "But whatever the security measures, there is always a limit. The issue is more than a security one," Mr Pace insisted.
"We do not want to rush to any conclusions nor do we want to minimise the effects. The truth is that the damage of such attacks is escalating every time," Ruben Grima, the curator of the temple sites management unit said.
The mayor of Qrendi said the local council had been appealing in vain with the authorities to step up security on site for the past years. The museums department faced angry resistance by hunters and trappers in the area when it attempted to take action to block their access between the Hagar Qim and Mnajdra
temples.
The authorities believe that the trappers should dismantle their bird-catching structures and leave the site as they are incompatible with the archaeological status of the area. The Mnajdra temple was the target of vandals back in 1996, when someone sprayed graffiti on the megaliths on the morrow of the general election. Since then the AFM and the police have been conducting sporadic night patrols although the temples remain largely vulnerable.
Meanwhile the chairman of the National Committee of Unesco's International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), which had listed Mnajdra as a World Heritage Site, Ray Bondin, said the incident showed how vulnerable Malta's prehistoric temples were. "I am shocked to hear such news," Mr Bondin said when contacted by The Malta Independent on Sunday yesterday. "This is very worrying and it shows there is no security at all in such sites."
Mr Bondin said he will report the incident to the UN World Heritage Committee. "I am sure the UN will ask the government for an explanation on this case," Mr Bondin said. "The solution for the structural problems of our temples has already been postponed by the government over the years, but this incident highlights our weak security system in such sites. It shows that there has never been a sincere attempt to deal with the issue."
Mr Bondin said the incident might also serve to remove Mnajdra from the prestigious World Heritage list and put it on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites in danger. "That would be absolutely negative," Mr Bondin said.
The Labour Party's spokesman on culture, Evarist Bartolo, deplored the "barbaric attacks" and criticised the authorities for having done nothing to prevent such an incident.
"The least the State can do is to protect our sites and not remain complacent in front of such security threats to our cultural heritage," Mr Bartolo said.
The police are appealing to individuals who have any information about the case to call on 221111 or 230313.
Karl Schembri
© Standard Publications 2001
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