Crimes Against Culture Must Not Remain Unpunished
By Koichiro Matsuura, Director General of UNESCO
(LE MONDE March 15, 2001)
A crime against culture has been committed. Destroying the great Buddhist
statues, which had watched over the valley of Bamiyan for 1500 years, the
Taliban have damaged them irreparably. They have destroyed not only part
of the memory of Afghanistan, but also an exceptional evidence of the encounter
of several civilizations and a heritage that belonged to all human beings.
This crime was perpetrated coldly and deliberately. No military action
under way in this part of Afghanistan can be invoked as an excuse.
In the past several years the caves surrounding the Buddhist statues,with
the walls
painted by the monks, were soiled and damaged by the soldiers of different
factions who had set up their bivouac there. Arms were stored there, at
the very feet of the Buddhist statues, which had been lowered to the rank
of shields. During these years the Buddhist statues were also taken for
targets many times. It was already intolerable, but war could be an explanation
of these attacks, although it could not be justification. The systematic
destruction perpetrated this time cannot even find such a miserable pretext.
This crime against culture was committed in the name of religion. Or
rather, in the name of a religious interpretation which is questionable
and controversial. Theologians that can be counted amongst the greatest
in Islam have strongly denied this interpretation. Ordering, in the name
of his faith, the destruction of the masterpieces of Afghan heritage, Mullah
Muhammad Omar claims to know more about Islam than all the generations
of Moslems in the last fifteen centuries, more than all the conquerors
and conscientious Moslems who spared Carthage, Abu Simbel, or Taxil, and
more than the prophet Mahomet himself, who, at the Mecca, chose to respect
the architecture of the Kaaba.
In fact, by their destructive acts, the Taliban harmed Islam instead of
contributing to its glory, and they assassinated the memory of a people,
the Afghan people, who had found in their heritage the marks of their identity
and their values. At the same time, depriving Afghanistan of part of its
riches, they harmed the country they wanted to rule.
Nothing could prevent this crime. No voice succeeded in making the
Taliban see reason, no matter how strong international protests were, no
matter how important confidential envoys, religious or not, were sent to
them. Going beyond the immense ruin already brought upon the Buddhist
statues, it is an act without precedent that has been committed this time. For
the first time, a central authority - which is not acknowledged to be an
authentic one - usurped the right to destroy part of our heritage. For
the first time, UNESCO, charged with its constituent act to preserve universal
heritage, is confronted with such a situation.
Of course, there were other destructions in the past. Sporadic decisions
may have dotted the history of many countries; iconoclastic movements may
have brought about its decline within a religion; revolutionary situations
may have led to a devastating confusion; and in recent years, the village
of Dubrovnik and the bridge of Mostar may have been taken for targets because
they were symbols. However we thought that we had definitely entered a
new era, an era of more respect and esteem for heritage - a heritage in
which everyone would learn to read the symbols of their common and plural
belongings.
UNESCO has largely contributed to it, working in three main directions:
the protection of cultural assets in case of military conflict, under Hague
Convention; the fight against the illegal dealings of these assets, taking
diverse normative measures; and, since 1972, the promotion of the very
idea of universal heritage. The success of the World Heritage List certainly
illustrates the extent of growing awareness and attention to heritage.
The popular attachment to heritage both near and far is a new phenomenon,
and it is not unrelated to the process of internationalization now going
on. A process in which everyone feels like a beneficiary of “Global Village”,
realizing the need of land marks, the need to recognize himself in monuments
or sites with values and significance. There should be no misunderstanding
here. They are not mere stones that have been destroyed. They are a history,
a culture, or rather the witnesses of the possible, fruitful encounter
of two great civilizations, and it is a lesson of intercultural dialogue
that they
wanted to erase.
That’s why we must call the mad act perpetrated by the Taliban against
pre-Islamic statues in Bamiyan or at the museums in Afghanistan a crime. Such
a cultural regression must not be permitted. This crime requires a new
type of sanctions. Several days ago the International Criminal Tribunal
for the former Yugoslavia showed us an example, by making the destruction
of historic monuments appear among the sixteen charges in its action concerning
the attack of 1991 against the historic port of Dubrovnik in Croatia.
The international community must not remain passive; it must not tolerate
crimes against cultural assets any longer. Facing the acts, isolated but
filled with danger, of the Taliban, UNESCO will take inevitable measures. Particularly
in order to fight against the dealings of Afghan cultural assets, which
is certainly, alas, to be reinforced, and in order to save the rest of
the heritage - pre-Islamic or Islamic - of the country, and also in order
to consider, within the framework of the World Heritage Committee, the
reinforcement of protection. The international community lost the Buddhist
statues in Bamiyan; it must not lose any more.
This article and the photo were reprinted from the web site of UNESCO’s
headquarters, Paris. The original text is in French.