UN Peacekeepers Spray-Paint Graffiti on 6000 year-old Monument

Peacekeepers 'deface ancient art'

The BBC reports that UN officers stationed in the Western Sahara have spray-painted graffiti over ancient rock art that is an important cultural heritage site. This was reported by a UN official, called shocking by the UN official responsible for overseeing the area, and referred to the UN cultural heritage preservation arm, UNESCO, to be funded for repair.

And is anyone else reminded of when some neighbor kid spray-painted obscene graphics on your house, and their parents walked them over, made them apologize, and offered to pay for the damage?

Let's put this in context. Africa is the birthplace of humanity and of civilization. The advancement of African societies in history has often been concealed or ignored by non-African people, many of whom, feeling complicit in slavery and racial oppression, would rather consider African people uncivilized and irrelevant. I learned about Greece and Rome (and Egypt, which has been partially adopted into the heritage of Europe ever since prominent researchers stopped being able to get away with claiming that the pyramids were built by Atlanteans since African Semites could hardly have the engineering skills) in grade school, but the great cities of Mali, of Kush, or of Nubia I never learned about until I was in college, and not much then. Now here we have people responsible for helping to keep the peace in one of the world's most wartorn regions, where the results of colonialism have sown widespread suffering and death. What brings them to deface and possibly destroy a reminder of this region's lofty history? Is it the same impulse that leads a kid to toilet-paper someone's house, or is there something more serious at work here?

Kudos to the UN for taking responsibility instead of shifting blame. I'd like to see some further investigation, as well. Is there a climate of disdain for African people that might undermine the effectiveness of peacekeeping efforts all around?