The third and final piece of the stolen Axum obelisk arrived home in Ethiopia from Italy on Monday nearly 70 years after it was plundered by fascist troops.
”I am very happy,” Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said as the giant Russian-built Antonov cargo plane touched down at the small airport here in northern Ethiopia at 6.20am (3.20am GMT).
”It is not merely a piece of stone, this is a symbol of identity. It is our identity and people have a lot of respect for it,” Zenawi said, as he boarded the plane with his wife and Italian officials to inspect the cargo.
”It is the end of a very bad chapter,” he said, in the presence of about 300 people who had gathered to see the obelisk arrive under rainy skies.
The third piece of the 24m, third-century BC granite funeral stele joins the first two which arrived here last week and are to be re-united and re-erected in the coming months.
Abebe Alenayu, an 82-year-old ex-soldier who is one of the few people still alive who saw the fascists taking the obelisk, said a chapter in history had been closed with the return.
”This is the end of my war with Italy. I did not think I would be able to see it come back. This is like a rebirth for me today and the whole of Ethiopia,” he said.
A gala celeration is to take place later on Monday and then preparations will begin in earnest to re-erect the 160-tonne monument on its original site on home soil, 68 years after Benito Mussolini ordered its removal as a conquest of war during his brief attempt to colonise Ethiopia.
Despite a 1947 agreement that called for its return, the obelisk had remained in Italy, much to the anger of Ethiopia, which accused Rome of stalling on the deal for the past 58 years.
The monument had stood outside the Rome headquarters of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation until last year when it was dismantled by Italian experts in preparation for its journey home.
Its return was finally agreed upon in November during a visit to Italy by Meles but its arrival was announced and then delayed several times.
Special preparations, including an extension of the airstrip at the small Axum airport, were undertaken over the past months to ensure that the mammoth Russian-built Antonov 124-100 cargo plane needed to carry the obelisk pieces could land safely there. – Sapa-AFP