　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

　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.