The Egyptian revolution took place following a popular uprising that began on January 25th 2011. The uprising was mainly a campaign of non-violent civil resistance, which featured a series of demonstrations, marches, acts of civil disobedience, and labour strikes. Millions of protesters from a variety of socio-economic and religious backgrounds demanded the overthrow of the regime of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
Unfortunately, the revolution was not without violent clashes between security forces and protesters, with at least 800 people killed and thousands injured. The uprising took place in Cairo, Alexandria, and in other cities in Egypt.
In February 2011, the Association of National Committee of the Blue Shield sent in an assessment mission with IMCuRWG.
Objective
The objective of the mission was to assess possible damages and looting attempts to Egyptian Heritage sites and museums after the recent unrests. Many contradicting messages were reported regarding looting and vandalism, without the possibility of properly checking the real situation. Therefore there was an urgent need to send a mission especially to those sites that were supposedly affected by criminal acts, in order to document the situation, to state damages incurred and to encourage the parties involved to further efforts in protecting the invaluable Cultural Heritage of Egypt.
Read the full Civil-Military Assessment Mission for Egyptian Heritage 02 2011 (pdf)
Photo: Assessment of Memphis by the Director of the Austrian Archaeological Institute at Cairo, Irene Forstner-Müller, Joris Kila and Karl von Habsburg.
Blue Shield Fact Finding Mission Egypt: Memphis. 14 February 2011, by Habsburg-Lothringen.
This photo is available via Wikimedia Commons.
More details and photographs of the Civil-Military Assessment Mission are available on the Blue Shield Austria’s website.
(Menu on the left: Missionen / Egypt 2011)
Read the Blue Shield statement on Egypt
