Problemy ochrony zabytków w Etiopii

The foundations of the Ethiopian protection of monuments was laid by the Emperor's proclamation no 229 of 1966, on the strength of which all monuments from before 1850, irrespective of who was the owner, were recognized as the state property. Still, proclamation does not say anything about the Emperor. Nor lists it museums, libraries, archives. (Six months later the instructions were given to establish the autonomous Board of Ethiopian Monuments that was to control „research, care, protection and studies” on the monuments of the country). After 1974 new authorities continued cooperation with UNESCO, the outcome of which was a plan for "the protection and presentation of selected historic objects and works of architecture” and 1978 UNESCO resolution initiating an international solidarity campaign, drawing of a programme of a professional technical base and conservation of chosen historic complexes (i.a. Aksumu, Condar, Lalibela, Ulaschory in the region of the Fana lake and the town of Harrar). By the time a new law on the protection of cultural property is passed, the 1966 Emperor’s Proclamation, not applied in practice, remains in force. The new law has to create both an optimum legal base for the protection of monuments as well as the conditions for their use. During the consultation of UNESCO (in which the author of the present report has also taken part) attention has been paid to the need to define the kind and age of objects covered by protection and their classification as well as the creation of the conditions that would enable the operation of conservation services. The problem of the protection of monuments in Ethiopia is completely incomparable with the problems encountered in European states. The size of the country and, first and foremost, dispersion and inaccessibility of structures, political tensions and permanent war unrest, natural calamities and a traditional mistrust of believers who defend the access to churches and hide objects of religious cult before the strangers and authorities determine the conditions in which conservation services are to work. These are great difficulties, worsened still by the lack of professional services and merely partial knowledge of objects in possession. Everything here is in an embryo stage and available means — meagre. Therefore, even the best law will not solve the problem. And these are the tasks for a few decades. It is necessary to build up both the entire administrative — executional apparatus as well as scientific and technical facilities.