Hopes for cultural heritage revival

Following the establishment of Afghanistan's interim government, some Afghans abroad are optimistic that recent developments may help lead to a revival of their cultural heritage.

"Afghans want their cultural heritage to be protected and revived with international assistance and supervision," Ismail Yoon, an Afghan writer, told IRIN on Monday from Peshawar, capital of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP). "Our national cultural heritage had been systematically destroyed and the interim administration should prioritise its restoration," he said.

Yoon, 37, author of the book "The Cultural Losses of Afghanistan", illustrated the extent to which Afghanistan's cultural heritage had been damaged. "The national museum at Kabul housed up to 100,000 artefacts, 95 percent of these were either stolen or vandalised over the last decade," he said, adding that golden ornaments containing some 22,000 gold coins were stolen during Burhanuddin Rabbani's stint in power during the early 90s.

"There were museums in Mazar, Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabad, Faryab and Ghazni," he said. "Most of them lie in ruins," he lamented. Yoon wants the international community and United Nations Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (UNESCO) to open an international museum for the collection and protection of Afghan artefacts which would be restored to the national museum in Kabul, once stability was restored.

Asked whether the two giant Bamyian Buddhas - destroyed by the Taliban last year - could be restored, Yoon, optimistically pointed out that as the material was available, it would not be impossible. "Even some Taliban were not happy with their destruction. Many Afghans will welcome their restoration," he said.

But Habibullah Rafie, another Afghan writer, said that the Buddhas of Bamiyan were build over a period of two centuries and they were lost forever. "Modern technologies can build them much quicker but who will find the zeal that the Buddhist craftsman had 1,800 years earlier?" he said.

Highlighting the immediate steps needed, Rafie said a comprehensive survey should be carried out to assess the existing numbers of cultural artefacts in Afghanistan. Additionally, people should be prevented from carrying out illegal excavations.

He called upon Afghanistan's interim Minister for Culture and Information, Makhdoom Raheen, to look into the restoration of some 30,000 artefacts that the Taliban claimed to posses when they destroyed the giant Bamiyan Buddhas in March. "Afghanistan is home to some of the oldest human civilisations and we had artefacts and archaeological sites from Greco-Bactrian, Roman, Buddhist [Gandhara] and Islamic civilisations spread over thousands of years," he said, adding that over the last decade most of them were looted or vandalised in the war ravaged country.

Meanwhile, UNESCO has warned that Afghanistan's cultural heritage was under extreme threat. Martin Hadlow, a UNESCO expert currently examining the cultural devastation of Afghanistan, noted last week that he was amazed by the appalling loss of cultural history in a land that once stood at the crossroads of so many important civilisations. He added that the loss of Afghan cultural heritage was a loss to the whole world.

Hadlow also met Raheen, who underlined the need for assistance from the international community. Raheen called for international assistance for the Kabul museum and Afghan public libraries.