Marbles on CHOGM agenda
From AAP
19jan02
PRIME Minister John Howard has formally committed to confronting British counterpart Tony Blair at the rescheduled Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting on the issue of returning the Parthenon marbles to Greece.
Greece has long demanded that the British Museum return the 75 metre ancient sculptures, arguing they are a national cultural treasure that should never have been taken away from the Acropolis.
Mr Howard was initially reluctant to join a swelling worldwide campaign to return the artefacts but caved in after intense lobbying from Australia's Greek community, which included a petition of 30,000 signatures last June.
Australian Hellenic Council coordinator Costa Vertzayias today said Mr Howard had written to council members last week reassuring them he would not renege on a promise last year to talk to Mr Blair at the October CHOGM, which was subsequently postponed.
In the letter, he vowed to tackle Mr Blair in a quiet moment at the rescheduled meeting, to be held on March 1-3 on the Sunshine Coast.
"He reiterated his undertaking to raise it on the sidelines with Tony Blair," Mr Vertzayias said.
"He can't place it on the (formal) agenda because bilateral issues are not allowed to be put on the agenda."
Former prime ministers Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser, and Greek singer Nana Mouskouri, have all spearheaded campaigns to have the marbles returned to Greece in time for the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Greece has long maintained that the Marbles - sculptures of gods, heroes, men and battles carved in the fifth century BC to adorn the walls of the Parthenon Temple - were stolen and should be returned.
They were taken from Athens by Lord Elgin from 1801 and sold to the British Parliament in 1816.