Benghazi: even now, the fallen are not safe "It is so sad," says John Tooke, one of the Commission's directors of operations. We have people of all religions and no religion buried in our cemeteries and everyone is accorded the same respect. The Hindu servicemen have been cremated before burial and the Muslim servicemen have been buried facing Mecca. Generals lie next to private soldiers - there is no differentiation. The Commission is one of the last tangible expressions of the British Empire. Founded in 1917 as the Imperial War Graves Commission, its task was somehow to address the titanic losses being sustained during the Great War. Wealthy relatives were pressing for the repatriation of remains, but the Commission, fearing a backlash from poorer families unable to meet the cost of shipping remains home, opted for overseas burial. Since that time, it has worked quietly to maintain graves and memorials from Murmansk to Timbuktu, where the remains of William Soutter and Graham Turnbull, members of the Merchant Navy, lie. Altogether, there are 23,000 sites in 53 countries meriting attention, including that of Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, victor of the first battle of El Alamein, who lies in Casablanca. The Commission's strict remit encompasses only the two world wars, but over time it has assumed responsibility for thousands of other graves, including those of casualties of more recent conflicts. The practice of burying casualties as near as possible to the place where they fought and died changed during the Falklands War of 1982. Following the conflict, 64 of the dead were brought back to Britain, while only 16 were buried on the islands. The remainder of the 255 British servicemen killed were buried, or lost, at sea. Since then, repatriation has become the norm, casualties of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistran being flown home for interment. The desecration of the sites in Benghazi will place an added strain on the resources of the Commission, which commands a £60 million annual budget, three quarters of it supplied by the United Kingdom. It is already having to contend with the huge cost of replacing Portland stone headstones now nearing the end of their lives. "We believe about 250 graves have been vandalised and I would estimate the cost at about £200 each," says Mr Tooke, whose is responsibile for all cemeteries and memorials outside Western Europe. We were already diverting funds to cover the cost of new Portland headstones for casualties of the First World War in France and elsewhere. The stone eventually powders and the faces flake off. For the desert headstones we use Boticcino, a low-grade marble from Italy. The headstones have to be shipped from Italy to France, where all our headstones are engraved, and then to Libya. So, it will take time. Thankfully, vandalism of this kind is very rare. That is cold comfort for John Lewes, nephew of Lt Lewes, whose wartime exploits are commemorated by a statue unveiled by the Duke of Cambridge at the headquarters of the SAS in Hereford. "I am appalled by what has happened," he says. This reminds me of the destruction of the Buddhas at Bamiyan by the Taliban. That was a really bad omen for Afghanistan and I am very concerned about what is going to happen in Libya. It is extremely sad that we cannot now show respect to a soldier who did so much to secure the type of freedom the Libyan people now enjoy. The question is, how will Britain's war cemeteries in the Middle East fare in the face of continuing conflict and Islamist radicalism? How long also will British and Commonwealth governments be prepared to finance graves and monuments from wars fast receding into history? There are seven British and Commonwealth military cemeteries in Libya - two in Benghazi, two in Tripoli, one in Tobruk, one in Sirte and one at Acroma - holding the remains of some 8,000 dead of the Desert War, as well as other military and naval casualties. The Commission does not pretend to provide security for such sites, relying instead on the authorities in host countries. When conflict flares, it must await peace before returning to undo the damage - as with the 1,300 Commonwealth military graves in Syria. Yet even in the most adverse circumstances, there are those willing to clean headstones and tend shrubs. "We have people whose families have worked for the Commission for generations," says Mr Tooke. We have people in the back end of India, Burma, everywhere. No one does what we do on this scale - the Americans have a few beautiful cemeteries, but generally take their dead home. Gil Boyd believes the time may have come to repatriate remains and pay them due respect at home. A former paratrooper, he set up Gravewatch to monitor the condition of war graves, specifically those of airborne forces casualties. "Bring them all home," he says. These soldiers have sacrificed everything for these people, and if they don't appreciate what they have been given by the men lying in their soil, then we should find the money to bring them back home. It will not happen. Not now, not ever, in all probability. Too many men lie in a corner of a foreign field. In 1922, during a visit to Flanders, King George V remarked: "I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon earth through the years to come than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war." The advocacy of the dead did not work then - more were to join their ranks a mere 17 years later. The outrages in Benghazi show that, even 90 years on, the living still do not listen.