Ethiopian obelisk to go home at last

Ieri a causa di problemi tecnici ho potuto pubblicare questa immagine, senza l'articolo di commento che inoltro ora.

E' tratto dal Guardian e racconta gli utlimi sviluppi della pluridecennale vicenda dell'obelisco di Axum, come sempre in questi casi cliccate sul titolo se volete accedere all'articolo originale.

Sabba



John Hooper in RomeMonday January 3, 2005The Guardian A long-running cultural and diplomatic wrangle looks likely to be resolved within months, with the return of a 1,700-year-old obelisk that was hauled out of Ethiopia by Italian colonial troops in the fascist era.
The government in Addis Ababa announced this week that the treasured stone column would be flown home from Rome in May, putting an end to years of procrastination and 18 months of logistical delays.
Italy first promised to give back the Axum obelisk in 1947. But it was not until November 2003 that Silvio Berlusconi's government signed a deal with the authorities in Addis Ababa, and the 200-tonne column was divided into sections for its return journey.
Until then the obelisk, which Ethiopians regard as a symbol of their national identity, had stood incongruously outside the headquarters of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation in Rome, being besmirched by traffic pollution. Benito Mussolini had ordered the column to be erected as a memorial to the defeat and subjugation of Ethiopia.
The Addis Ababa government has promised a one-day national holiday to mark its return.
Last July, nine months after the obelisk was taken apart, an Italian newspaper revealed that it was lying under tarpaulins in the back yard of a Carabinieri barracks outside Rome. The government had said it was under armed guard at the airport.
One of the problems was money. Italy had agreed to underwrite the cost of the operation, but the government has slashed departmental budgets to fund tax cuts and stay within deficit limits imposed by Italy's membership of the euro.

On a visit to Rome in November Ethiopia's prime minister, Meles Zalawi, signalled that the cash had been found. The remaining problem was to find a plane big enough to carry the vast granite chunks back to Axum, in northern Ethiopia, where the column once stood - and where an airfield has been created to receive it. The company that dismantled the obelisk said it needed an Antonov 124.
Ethiopian officials say this problem too has now been solved; it is the first time either government has announced a firm date for the operation.
Axum is more than 2,000 metres above sea level and its rarefied air exacerbates the considerable difficulties of landing a huge plane with a weighty load.
According to one estimate the heaviest cargo that could be landed safely on the airstrip would be 55 tonnes; the obelisk's heaviest segment weighs 87 tonnes.