…and what if they blew up a food warehouse, hospital, munitions storage or mosque?

UNESCO obviously have been taken over my Muslims (OIC) just like most of the UN. We all know that in the near impossible event that Buddhists had blown up a grand mosque in Afghanistan with tons of historical significance that it would be being rebuilt at UN expense before the last bit of dust hit the ground.

From IPS NEWS:

Ancient Buddhas Will Not Be Rebuilt – UNESCO
By Andrea Lunt

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11, 2011 (IPS) – Afghanistan’s historic Bamiyan Buddhas, destroyed by the Taliban 10 years ago, will not be reconstructed despite claims the 1,500-year-old statues could be repaired, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said Thursday.

The decision follows a two-day meeting of scientists, Afghan officials and donors in Paris last week.

While the expert panel was split on the possibility of reconstruction, UNESCO has told the Afghan government it does not support a rebuild project, citing concerns over funding priorities and authenticity.

Replicating the colossal monuments, which once stood 55 and 38 metres tall, could cost between eight and 12 million dollars. However, less than half of the original stone used to build the statues remains.

“We think any reconstruction will essentially be a fake because of lack of original material,” UNESCO’s assistant director-general for culture, Francesco Bandarin, told reporters at a special conference in New York.

“We have to think of the public, and they don’t need to see a fake, they need to see the reality. And these statues have been destroyed. As much as we mourn that they have been destroyed it’s an historical fact,” he added.

The Bamiyan Buddhas, dating from the sixth century, were bombed in 2001 as part of the Taliban’s campaign to rid Afghanistan of pre-Islamic structures.

While much of the statues was reduced to dust, a group of German scientists, led by Professor Erwin Emmerling of the University of Munich, has said the smaller of the two could be restored.

The scientists have spent years studying the Buddhas, by analysing the hundreds of exploded fragments currently stacked in warehouses in the Bamiyan Valley.

According to Emmerling, a reconstruction project could be feasible using the original stone, but there would be practical considerations. Either a small factory would have to be built in the valley, or the 1,400 rocks weighing up to two tonnes each would need to be transported to Germany.

The scientists’ proposals, however, have not been accepted by Afghan President Hamid Karzai and his government, which has indicated it will not go ahead with restoration.

The decision has drawn strong criticism from Afghanistan’s Hazara community, a minority ethnic group that claims a long association with the Bamiyan Valley and views the Buddha statues as a source of pride.

The international advocacy organisation Hazara People said the consensus to not rebuild was “shameful”.

The group believes the decision is politically influenced and reflects the continued discrimination aganst Hazara peoples in Afghanistan.

“We are not surprised the Afghan government does not want to rebuild the Bamiyan Buddhas,” a spokesperson, who did not want to be named, told IPS. “Bamiyan Buddhas are great proof that say Hazara people have been living in that area for thousands of years.”

Hazaras have long faced violence in Afghanistan, suffering genocide, slavery, and forced displacement under a series of governments including the Taliban.

And while the ethnic group is predominately Muslim, their East Asian appearance bears a resemblance to monuments such as the Bamiyan Buddhas.

“Afghan regimes have had this policy to destroy all historic symbols of Hazaras,” the spokesperson continued. “The (19th century) Afghan/Pashtun king Abdurrahman has destroyed the face of Buddha in Bamiyan. It was very simple, he didn’t want Buddha’s face like Hazara’s face.”

The group rejected the argument that there was a lack of funding for restoration, pointing to the Karzai government’s recent willingness to financially support the reconstruction of Pashtun poet Rahman Baba’s bombed shrine in Pakistan.

“But the same government didn’t pay one dollar for the Bamiyan Buddhas,” the spokesperson told IPS.

“The expenses of a few projects in Bamiyan have been covered by some international donors. Furthermore, eight to 12 million dollars is nothing compared to billions of dollars in aid to Afghanistan…eight to 12 million dollars is nothing compared to a million dollars corruption by Afghan senior officials.”

While acknowledging there was desire to see the Buddhas rebuilt, UNESCO believes priority should now be placed on preserving the wider Bamiyan Valley, a World Heritage-listed site containing treasured Buddhist art and monastic caves dating to the first century.

The organisation, which has already conducted extensive consolidation of the ancient niches where the statues once stood, has called for construction of a central museum in Bamiyan, in addition to smaller site museums within the area.

“The priority now is creating the capacity to conserve what is there and ensuring the security of the site, in order to have it open for tourism,” Bandarin said.

(END)

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

10 Replies to “…and what if they blew up a food warehouse, hospital, munitions storage or mosque?”

  1. You so right. If it were a mosque, it would have been rebuilt. We already know about the $7 million of taxpayer dollars that Muslim Obama and his regime are spending to rebuild Mosques in muslim countries. Whatever happened to separation of church and state? I guess that doesn’t apply when it comes to Muslims and Mosques. What a waste of excrement we have dwelling in the White Mosque.

  2. The UN is a shill for OPEC and the OIC. I do not hold hope that it will survive another decade, since the west is realizing that Islam is a man-made disaster which affects the planet’s safety.

    Its no surprise that Afghanistan is not willing to reconstruct the statues.

    And the Allies have done, what, exactly, to make the country more “modern”?

    Absolutely nothing. We can’t even stop the Taliban from destroying schools for girls.

    Its high time that the west really understands the level of commitment needed to defeat terrorists. We don’t need to defeat merely the “radicals” within Islam but Islam itself, just as the Allies of WWII had to defeat the Axis.

    We need to defeat them utterly and without favour, otherwise we risk total defeat by Islam on all fronts: legal, cultural, political and economic.

    One way to do this is for the Allies currently in Afghanistan to pull out of the UN and form a similar coalition that would not allow tyrannical regimes like those in Muslim countries from joining. In short, form a rival to the emasculated UN that would be effective and make decisions in the name of principles that were originally part of the UN Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the original UN documents.

  3. I have to agree, its not just the extremist we must defeat, but Islam itself. Islam is an ideology not a religion. Most Muslims in the west and here in America owe their allegiance to Islam and not the country they live in. Islam is at war with us, its time all of the west realizes it.

  4. A very well balanced article,
    I agree with the thoughts of writers of this article, I belong to Hazara ethnic group that why pashtoon is against the rebuild of Giant Buddha of Bamiyan,
    First point that it told Hazara are the one of the oldest nation of Afghanistan, that is why they are not interesting to rebuild,
    I think the international community should put pressure on government of Afghanistan that Buddha should be rebuild, It is symbol of pride for the Great Hazara Nation,

  5. If they rebuild them then Muzis will just blow them up again. Now that the Afganastan govenrment has officially endorsed the destruction of those ancient cultural artifacts by islamic facists, we should let a civilized country give them a home.

    Let a country that people besides photojornalists actually want to go take the materials, rebuild the statues in an easily accessible place, and reap the resulting tourist dollars and international good will.

  6. Since the Afgan gov has now officially endorsed the destruction of these priceless pre islamic artifacts we should let another country take the materials, rebuild them in a more accessable location, and reap the trouist dollars.

  7. sorry for the double post.
    1. after the first comment I pressed “post comment”
    2. it took a very long time for the page to refresh
    3. My comment was not on the page
    4. I figured as there are new changes to the site there might be something wrong with the posting mechanisms.
    5. I wrote the comment again and pressed post comment and then both comments appeared.

  8. jjk999 Before the statues were destroyed, collectors offered the Taliban a lot of money to let them move them out of Afghanistan. They refused preferring instead, to destroy them to make a point.

    Im pretty confident that the OIC will prevent any UN organization from allowing the remnants to be rebuilt anywhere.

  9. This incident is a preview of what will happen in Egypt once the Moslem Brotherhood takes over, the will destroy all of the ancient artifacts they can find.