Safeguarding the Buddha statues in Bamiyan and the sustainable protection of afghan cultural heritage

Abstract

Sadly, the cultural heritage of Afghanistan has suffered cruelly from the conflicts and disasters. But the most dramatic destruction was the one decided by the chief of the Taliban regime, Mullah Omar, on 26 February 2001 for the destruction of the two giant Buddha statues in the carved during the fifth century AD in the Bamiyan Valley. Under the authority and support of the UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura, a series of actions were undertaken to mobilize political and religious personalities of the Islamic States that could influence the Taliban. The Taliban announced their decision 1 week to 10 days before Aid el Adha, one of the most important Islamic festivals, commemorating the Abraham Sacrifice, fixed on March 8, 2001. UNESCO Director-General was able to speak by telephone with President of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, who immediately accepted to facilitate a mission of Egyptian religious personalities led by Sheikh Al-Azhar to Kandahar in order to persuade the Taliban over their concerns for errors in interpreting Islamic law. To respond to the numerous questions that UNESCO received after the destruction of the Buddhas of Bamiyan, a conference of experts in Islamic law was organized in Qatar, end of December 2001, at the occasion of regular meeting of the Ministers of Culture of the Islamic World, which proclaimed the "Doha Declaration on Islam and Cultural Heritage".