Pasargad Heritage Foundation takes legal action against Mr. Rahim Mashai and criticizes UNESCO’s inaction

Mr Koichiro Matsuura

Director-General

UNESCO

7 place de Fontenoy

75352 Paris 07 SP

France

15 June 2008

Dear Mr Matsuura,

As you certainly are aware, it is almost 4 long years that in many occasions and through our numerous open and confidential letters, whose receipt has been acknowledge by your office, we have informed you about the grave dangers posed by the humidity created by Sivand Dam in Fars Province of Iran to the mausoleum of Cyrus the Great. We have also conveyed the professional opinions of experts and engineers who are deeply concerned about the destructive consequences of such a reckless development. Last year, and only a few weeks left to the inauguration of the dam, we forwarded an open letter signed by hundred of thousands of people from around the world, asking for your immediate attention and action. In that letter, we had included the very open confessions of Mr. Rahim Mashai, the head of Iranian Cultural Heritage Organization, as to the probable destructive effects of the dam. This was just to show you a legal and reliable document provided by an official of Islamic Republic of Iran.

            Unfortunately, no one, or no independent person, has been able to understand the reasons behind your persistent inaction in this regard, despite the fact that the goals of your organization clearly commissions you to protect those cultural heritage that have been recognized and registered by UNESCO as the heritage belonging to the whole human race.

            Now, exactly one year after the flooding of Sivand Dam near Pasargad, the mayor of this town has officially declared that the humidity from the dam has begun to show its damaging effects on the huge cubic stones that are used in the ancient building of the mausoleum.

            Based on this document and apart from the fact that a legal complaint is to be filed with the authorities against Mr. Moshai, PHF, as a registered international non-profit and non-political institution, would like to ask for your prompt attention to this grave situation for the last time, hopefully expecting that your organization would openly announce what course of action has been adopted in this regard. Naturally, this Foundation preserves the right to take further legal action with the aim of withholding those human rights that relate to the cultural heritage of the whole humanity.

Yours sincerely,

Shokooh Mirzadegi (Ms)

Director, PHF