A/71/317 • Abdulaziz al-Jobouri, head of Antiquities Security in the Province of Nineveh, who was responsible for the protection of numerous ancient sites, was executed by Da’esh on 16 October 2014. The mosque that he had built in his village was subsequently bulldozed. • Mustafa Ali Ahmad Salih and Asrawi Kamil Gad Qalayni, guards at the Dayr al-Barsha site in Egypt, were killed on 20 February 2016 by a gang of tomb robbers as they attempted to stop the looting of the tomb of the last ruler of the First Intermediate Period, Djehuti-Nakht. 56 • Berta Cáceres, noted defender of indigenous rights and co ordinator of the Civic Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras, who had long campaigned to protect indigenous heritage, including natural heritage, was gunned down in Honduras on 3 March 2016. 57 70. We must also commemorate those who fell earlier. Aida Buturovic, a librarian, was killed by a shell burst in August 1992 as she returned home after working with others to save the rare books and manuscripts in National and University Library of Sarajevo on the day it was shelled. Expert bibliographer András Riedlmayer made the following comment: “People sometimes ask me why I am worried about books when so many human beings have died and suffered. My answer is to point to Aida Buturovic, because the two are inseparable.” 58 71. These are only a few of the cultural heritage heroes who have fallen. The Special Rapporteur notes that she has been unable to locate any source of comprehensive records of the threats made to, and human rights abuses perpetrated against, cultural heritage defenders. The greatest memorial that members of the international community could raise to those who died defending heritage would be a continuation of their work and the provision of support to those still on the front lines. We must not wait until we are mourning their deaths to rally to the cause of cultural heritage defenders at risk. 72. The Special Rapporteur has become aware of small initiatives aimed towards supporting local cultural heritage professionals or, when the risk becomes too great, arranging for their evacuation and thereby enabling them to work in institutions elsewhere. Those initiatives could have exerted a significant impact but were hampered by the inability to obtain funds, notwithstanding the international community’s professions of outrage at heritage destruction. Such small, potentially effective initiatives are to be favoured over mere window dressing. 73. Threats to cultural heritage defenders also pose a grave risk of the loss of their expertise. Further, conflict situations and political turmoil frequently result in __________________ 56 57 58 20/24 Based on Dayr al-Barsha Project, “GoFundMe campaign for the antiquities guards of Dayr al-Barsha”, 22 February 2016. Available at www.dayralbarsha.com/node/301; and correspondence with the Dayr al-Barsha Project, directed by the Department of Egyptology, University of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, “Berta Cáceres’ murder: UN experts renew call to Honduras to end impunity”. Available at www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/ Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=19805&LangID=E. Ken Gewertz, “Librarians Riedlmayer and Spurr Honored for Work in Sarajevo”, Harvard Gazette, 31 October 1996. Available at http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/1996/10.31/ LibrariansRiedl.html. See also András Riedlmayer, “Crimes of war, crimes of peace: destruction of libraries during and after the Balkan wars of the 1990s”, Library Trends, vol. 56, No. 1 (2007), pp.107-132. 16-13742