The vandalism of Commission cemeteries has also been connected to the participation of Commonwealth countries in contemporary conflicts . In the 1970s , in The Troubles , Commission cemeteries in Ireland experienced vandalism . Vandals defaced the central memorial of the Étaples Military Cemetery in northern France with anti @-@ British and anti @-@ American graffiti on 20 March 2003 immediately after the beginning of the Iraq War . On 9 May 2004 , thirty @-@ three headstones were demolished in the Gaza cemetery , which contains 3 @,@ 691 graves , allegedly in retaliation for the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal . On 24 February 2012 , during the Libyan Civil War , an Islamist militia damaged over 200 headstones in the Benghazi war cemetery as well as the central memorial .