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Cultural vultures to face tough penalties
By Shamillia Sivathambu
Robbery or vandalism of the country's cultural artefacts may soon carry tough penalties such as life imprisonment or a massive fine of Rs. one million, an official of the Archaeology Department said. He said they had recommended to the Attorney General that laws be amended to provide for this crackdown on . At present the penalty for such offences is a fine of Rs. 50,000 or a jail term of two to five years.

Archaelogy Chief M.B. Herath, said the vandalism was going on unabated and he believed the tougher penalties could be the remedy. During the past year 43 cases of vandalism and theft were reported, and the Department had got 40 of the suspects convicted.

"Expenses are incurred unnecessarily due to vandalism. We have to spend a lot of money restoring vandalised sites. This money could be used elsewhere if the problem was solved," Mr. Herath said.

This year alone the Department of Archaeology spent Rs 10.5 million on restoration projects brought on by vandalism. This amounts to 15 per cent of the Department's entire budget.

The looting and destruction of cultural antiquities remain a difficult problem to monitor, with 13,000 cultural sites around the country, the relevant ministries have to rely on the cooperation of local communities and the police force to report such cases.

UNESCO has taken this into account and is in the process of setting up a sub-committee on Culture to help centralise efforts and initiate more effective means of monitoring and policing cultural sites through the appointment of site managers., Mr. Herath said.

Measures of this nature might help prevent the problem from escalating further, especially before it reaches the level of a highly organised smuggling ring, which would make detection almost impossible, said Mr. Paskaran, Assistant Director of Customs. Compared to the other items that feature regularly in smuggled containers, the volume of artefacts leaving the country are too small and sporadic to detect and so the Customs Authorities have to rely on tip-offs to uncover the whereabouts of stolen antiquities.

The introduction of tougher penalties and greater policing initiatives are two steps in the right direction, but the real deterrent will come from culturally conscientious communities. Communities that are proud of their cultural heritage will effectively aid the relevant authorities in reporting crimes involving the vandalism and theft of cultural property.

The Director General of the Central Cultural Fund, Professor A.V. Suraweera said, "increasing the penalty for theft and vandalism will help reduce the number of incidence but creating cultural awareness on a large scale will stop the problem and help preserve our cultural heritage."

Reaching out to communities through education and training are encouraging attempts to address the looting and destruction of cultural artefacts at grass roots level. If local communities remain uninterested in their cultural heritage than government directives and penal changes will achieve little in the way of solving the problem. Mr. Paskaran of the Customs Department summed it up well when he said, "You can't build a 10-storey building when you are surrounded by shanties."

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