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New Zealand War Grave Headstones Damaged
Press release
March 7, 2012.
Ministry for Culture and Heritage/Manatū Taonga
NEW ZEALAND WAR GRAVE HEADSTONES DAMAGED
The Ministry for Culture and Heritage has
received confirmation overnight that the headstones of New
Zealand soldiers buried in the Benghazi War Cemetery in
Libya have been damaged.
The cemetery, which contains the graves of 238 Second World War soldiers, was attacked by vandals last week and damage was extensive.
Eleven New Zealand soldiers are buried at Benghazi and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission has confirmed all 11 headstones have been damaged.
The commission, an inter-governmental agency based in London and funded by member countries to maintain war graves, has said the cemetery will be restored to a “standard befitting the sacrifice of those commemorated at Benghazi as soon as possible”.
The commission said procedures were in place to make the work a priority.
Earlier this week Arts, Culture and Heritage
Minister Christopher Finlayson condemned the vandalism and
supported the commission’s commitment to restoring the
headstones. More than 1200 Commonwealth servicemen are
buried at the Benghazi War Cemetery and the commission has
confirmed there are at least 238 damaged
headstones.
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