CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VOLUME VI (1) Contemporary-Eurasia-VI-1-engl | Page 73

CONTEMPORARY EURASIA VI (1)
Islamic beliefs. 17 In the last few years, the violence in the ongoing
conflict in Syria has taken a heavy toll on the ancient cities of
Aleppo 18 and Damascus 19 . While these situations are different in terms
of the conflict classification analysis involved (Syria is still
considerably under debate), the situations are similar with regard to
the destruction of cultural property. Is cultural property protected
under international law? Yes. There seems to be multiple conventions
that discuss the protection of cultural property (both moveable and
immoveable).
Let’s take an example of the destruction of the statue of Bamiyan
Buddha in Afghanistan in 2001. In March 2001, the statues were
destroyed by Mullah Omar of the Taliban following a decree issued
by him. The Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar explained why he
ordered the statues to be destroyed in an interview: “I did not want to
destroy the Bamiyan Buddha. In fact, some foreigners came to me and
said they would like to conduct the repair work of the Bamiyan
Buddha that had been slightly damaged due to rains. This shocked me.
I thought, these callous people have no regard for thousands of living
human beings -- the Afghans who are dying of hunger, but they are so
concerned about non-living objects like the Buddha. This was extremely
deplorable. That is why I ordered its destruction. Had they come for
humanitarian work, I would have never ordered the Buddha’s
destruction” 20 .
Soon after the Mullah’s decree, there was a predictably deafening
international outcry and the international community appealed to the
Taliban regime to see reason. The director general of the U.N. Educational,
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Koichiro Matsuura
called the destruction a “...crime against culture. It is abominable to
Rashid A., “After 1700 years, Buddhas fall to Taliban dynamite”, The
Telegraph, March 12, 2001, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ worldnews/asia/
afghanistan/1326063/After-1700-years-Buddhas-fall-to-Taliban-dynamite.html
18 UNESCO inscription 1986, World Heritage in Danger inscription 2013,
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/21
19
UNESCO inscription 1979, World Heritage in Danger inscription 2013,
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/20
20
Shehzad M., “The Rediff Interview-Mullah Omar”, The Rediff, Kabul 3rd
March, 2001.
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