CENTER FOR IRANIAN STUDIES - کانون پژوهشهای ايران شناختی

يادداشت ويراستار

هفتاد و سه سال ِ پيش از اين، گروهي از باستان شناسان ِ دانشگاه ِ شيكاكو، با رواديد ِ دولت ِ وقت ِ ايران به كاوشي گسترده در تخت جمشيد پرداختند كه دستاورد ِ آن، هزاران لوح ِ گِلين با نگاشته هايي به خطّ ِ رايج ِ روزگار ِ هخامنشيان (خطّ ِ ميخي) بود. كاوشگران ِ آمريكايي با عنوان ِ اين كه لوح هاي كشف شده بايست در كوره هاي ويژه اي پخته شوند، اجازه يافتند كه آن ها را به منزله ي ِ امانت به دانشگاه شيكاكو انتقال دهند و پس از پخته شدن و خوانده شدن ِ متن ِ نوشته هاي ِ آن ها، به ايران بازگردانند. همه ي اين كارها انجام پذيرفت و حتّا متن ِ نوشته ها و ترجمه ي ِ آن ها نشريافت؛ امّا لوح هاي امانتي جا خوش كردند و در دانشگاه ِ شيكاكو ماندند! همين چندي پيش، در گزارشي خوانديم كه قرارست لوح ها پس از چندين دهه، به ايران بازگردانده شوند. امّا هنوز خشنودي ي ِ دريافت ِ آن گزارش، چندان نپاييده بود كه امروز گزارشي يكسره ناهمخوان با آن و در نوع ِ خود شگفتي انگيز و به شدّت تأسّف آور به اين دفتر رسيد. متن اين گزارش و ترجمه ي فارسي ي ِ آن را به گفتاورد از تارنماي ِ خبري ي ِ بي. بي. سي. در پي مي آورم.

به راستي در باره ي ِ بيدادگاهي كه روي ِ دادگاه ِ مشهور ِ بلخ را سفيدكرده و د ر صدد ِ صدور ِ حكم بر مصادره ي ِ ميراث ِ فرهنگي ي ميهن ِ ما برآمده و چگونگي ي ِ امانت داري ي ِ دست اندركاران ِ دانشگاه شيكاگو چه مي توان گفت جز آن كه همنوا با حافظ ِ دل سوخته بناليم كه : "يا رب اين نودولتان را بر خر ِ خودْشان نشان!"

امّا فراتر از ناله و گلايه، هنگام ِ آن است كه همه ي ايرانيان در ايران و بيرون از آن (به ويژه در آمريكا) به كوشش گسترده در اين زمينه دست زنند و با ياري خواهي از نهادهاي فرهنگي (مانند ِ يونسكو) و سازمان هاي ِحقوق بشري ي ِ جهاني، تباهكاران ِ فرهنگ ستيز آمريكايي را از ارتكاب چنين كردار ِ نابخشودني و سياهي بازدارند. در اين ميان، دولت ايران و سازمان ميراث فرهنگي بايد پاسخ گو باشند. برماست كه پيش از گذشتن ِ كار از كار و افتادن ِ گنجينه ي ِ باستاني مان به دست ِ قاچاق چيان و عتيقه فروشان ِ طمع ورز و سودجو، پي گيرانه و مصرّانه از همه ي مسؤلان امر در ايران و بيرون از آن، بخواهيم كه به اقدامي كارساز و فوري دست زنند. هرگاه دير بجنبيم و اين فاجعه ي ِ فرهنگ ستيزانه روي دهد، آيندگان هرگز ما را نخواهند بخشود.

ويراستار از يكايك ِ خوانندگان ِ ارجمند ِ اين صفحه خواهش مي كند كه با هر وسيله و رسانه ي ممكني در اين زمينه بكوشند و خبر را به گستردگي نشردهند و به هر جا و هركس كه مي توانند، برسانند.

از دكتر نيلوفر قيصري (از كانبرا) و دكتر مهرداد رفيعي (از بريزبن) كه به ترتيب، متن انگليسي و ترجمه ي فارسي ي اين گزارش را به اين دفتر فرستادند، بسيار سپاسگزارم.

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براي ِ آگاهي ي ِ بيشتر در اين زمينه، نگاه كنيد به :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/story/2006/06/060628_wmt-iranian-antiquities.shtml

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Treasures as compensationPersian artefacts in American museums could be used to compensate victims of terrorists, writes Ron Grossman

April 05, 2006

A RHODE Island lawyer has pioneered a new legal front in the war on terrorism, turning to the collections of leading US museums to seek compensation for American victims of Middle East suicide bombers.
Among the museums and institutions being pursued by David Strachman is the University of Chicago. He wants the university to surrender a treasure trove of ancient Persian artefacts to survivors of an attack staged by Hamas, the militant group that won the recent Palestinian elections.
The request was recently sustained by a federal magistrate in Chicago. A judgment is expected early this month on whether Americans are entitled to take the artefacts as compensation for the injuries they suffered in a bomb blast in Israel in 1997.
The reasoning is as straightforward as the implications are far-reaching: Supporters of terrorism should be punished. Hamas is partially financed by Iran.
Therefore, Hamas's victims should be compensated by confiscating Iranian property, making Persian artefacts in American museums, such as University of Chicago's Oriental Institute, fair game for federal marshals and a moving truck.
Should that logic hold up on appeal, it would further complicate life for an American museum world already under growing pressure to acknowledge that some artworks and artefacts arrived in their collections via shady circumstances. Floodgates could be opened for myriad similar lawsuits, says Joe Brennan, general counsel and vice-president of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History, whose Persian collection is also at risk in the lawsuit.
"If you can impose modern standards on acquisition methods of 100 years ago, I'm going to be in the business of litigating permanently," he says.
The University of Chicago still has several lines of defence before having to turn over its Persian artefacts.
But behind the courtroom manoeuvres lies a tangled tale and the manoeuvre has put several cultural institutions under a legal gun: the University of Chicago, the Field Museum, Harvard University, the University of Michigan, the Detroit Institute of Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
University of Chicago officials and their attorneys declined to comment on the case - Jenny Rubin, et al v the Islamic Republic of Iran, et al - except to express their confidence in ultimately prevailing.
"We're sympathetic with the victims of the terrorists, but the law does not allow recovery under these circumstances," says Beth Harris, University of Chicago's vice-president and general counsel.
In making that argument, the university has been put into the unenviable position of defending Iran's legal rights, pleading poverty for the country's fundamentalist rulers, who aren't contesting the case. In its court papers, the University of Chicago states: "Iran faces numerous practical barriers to [the] suit in the form of extensive defence costs."
The origins of the University of Chicago's legal entanglement date to September 4, 1997, when three suicide bombers set off explosives studded with nails, screws and broken glass at the Ben Yehuda pedestrian mall in Jerusalem, a popular tourist destination. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed five bystanders and wounded 192.
Several survivors, Americans visiting Israel at the time, filed a federal suit against Iran and Iranian officials in the District of Columbia. When the defendants didn't show up in court, the plaintiffs won by default.
Judge Ricardo Urbina found that the victims and their relatives were due $423.5million in damages. In his opinion, Ricardo noted that Iran has a ministry for terrorism that "spends between $50 million and $100 million a year sponsoring terrorist activities of various organisations such as Hamas."
The decision was a victory for Strachman, the plaintiffs' lawyer. "This case is about inflicting economic damage and punishment on the terrorists," he said after winning a similar suit.
Strachman declined to comment on the current proceedings, and Daniel Miller says he and other plaintiffs have been counselled not to speak about their experience while litigation is in process. But the judge found that the bombing left Miller, who had just graduated from high school, with glass in his eye, with bolts and nuts in his ankles and unable to walk for more than short periods.

Like any other winner of a damage suit, Strachman set out to collect his clients' awards from among the losers' assets. Strachman saw deep pockets in museums housing Iranian objects, among them the University of Chicago's. Its archeologists excavated Persepolis, the fabled capital of ancient Persia, between the two World Wars.
Among the collections of the university's Oriental Institute are thousands of clay fragments with cuneiform writing, priceless records of a vanished civilisation. When a process server showed up at University of Chicago, university officials didn't deny having Iranian property.
"These antiquities are undeniably owned by Iran," the University of Chicago said in court papers. But the university's lawyers invoked a legal principle known as sovereign immunity, which holds that governments can't be hauled into court like the rest of us.Though Iran hadn't asserted that right, the university wanted to do so for the government.
"You can sue the sovereign nation, you can get a judgment, but you can't collect it against any of their property unless they agree, right?" magistrate Martin Ashman asked during a hearing last November at the Dirksen federal building in Chicago.
He subsequently answered his own question by rejecting the university's argument in a decision rendered in December. It is under appeal. The US has sided with the museums, though it insists it is not defending Iran's behaviour.
Strachman's case against Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, is working its way through another federal court. Officials at those institutions declined to comment, except to express sympathy for the terrorists' victims.
In parallel proceedings against the Field Museum, both sides have exhibited fancier legal footwork. The museum has ancient Persian artefacts, known as the Herzfeld Collection because they were purchased in 1945 from Ernst Herzfeld, the University of Chicago archeologist who excavated Persepolis. Strachman alleges Herzfeld doubled as a dealer in stolen and smuggled antiquities.
If the museum's artefacts were among his loot, then they really belong to Iran - and thus his clients have a claim to them, Strachman argues.
Thomas Cunningham, the Field Museum's lawyer, pooh-poohs that theory. Against the University of Chicago, Strachman argued that someone else can't argue Iran's rights in court, but in the case of the Field Museum, he has done just that.
"We take the position that the plaintiffs don't have standing to bring a claim of Iran's right to the property," Cunningham says. "Only Iran can."
As with others involved, he predicts the story has many chapters to come.
Chicago Tribune

حکم مصادره اشيای باستانی ايران در دانشگاه شيکاگو


افراد شاکی از دولت ايران به عنوان حامی گروه حماس تقاضای غرامت کرده بودند
يک دادگاه فدرال آمريکا حکم به مصادره اشيای باستانی ايران در دانشگاه شيکاگو داده است.
بر اساس حکم بلنک منينگ قاضی دادگاه فدرال در ايالت ايلی نوی، بازماندگان قربانيان يک بمبگذاری گروه حماس در اسرائيل می توانند گنجينه های باستانی ايران در موسسه شرق شناسی دانشگاه شيکاگو را به عنوان غرامت دريافت کنند.
اين افراد از دولت ايران به عنوان حامی گروه حماس شکايت و تقاضای غرامت کرده اند. آثار باستانی ايران در دانشگاه شيکاگو در دهه ۱۹۳۰ توسط باستان شناسان آمريکايی در حفاری های تخت جمشيد کشف و بطور موقت به موسسه شرق شناسی اين دانشگاه منتقل شدند.
دانشگاه شيکاگو با استناد به اينکه مالکيت اين اشيا در انحصار دو موسسه دولتی موزه ملی ايران و نيز سازمان ميراث فرهنگی است کوشيد مانع از صدور حکم دادگاه شود اما قاضی منينگ اصل مصونيت دولتی را ناکافی دانست و سرانجام به نفع شاکی اين پرونده رای داد.
گزارش راديويی پرويز کامياب را بشنويد
ديويد استرکمن، وکيل بازماندگان بمبگذاری ياد شده که در سال ۱۹۹۷ در تل آويو روی داد، در تلاش است که از حکم دادگاه برای فروش گنجينه های باستانی ايران که گفته می شود بيش از ۷۱ ميليون دلار ارزش دارند استفاده کند.
مسئولين دانشگاه شيکاگو با تاکيد بر اينکه روند قضايی اين پرونده هنوز به اتمام نرسيده تاکنون از اظهار نظر درباره حکم دادگاه خودداری کرده اند.
پيش از اين يک دادگاه فدرال ديگر حکم به پرداخت ۴۲۳ ميليون دلار غرامت به بازماندگان اين بمبگذاری داد.
وکيل اين افراد بر اساس اين حکم بدنبال مصادره اموال ايران در آمريکا از جمله آثار باستانی موسسه شرق شناسی دانشگاه شيکاگو و نيز موزه فيلد شهر شيکاگو است.
مسئولين موزه فيلد گفته اند که اشيای عتيقه ايران باستان متعلق به دولت ايران نيست و از بازارهای جهانی خريداری شده اند.
دادگاه فدرال آمريکا ماه آينده درباره سرنوشت اشيای موزه فيلد نيز حکم صادر خواهد کرد.
پيش تر نيز احکام مشابه ديگری توسط دادگاه فدرال آمريکا صادر شده بطوريکه دولت آمريکا موظف شده است از محل دارايی های ايران به بازماندگان آمريکايی برخی بمب گذاری ها در اسرائيل غرامت پرداخت کند.
اما وزارت دادگستری آمريکا با استناد به مصلحت و منافع ملی اين کشور تلاش می کند در مقابل اجرای اين احکام مقاومت می کند.

posted by Jalil Doostkhah @ 2:49 AM