Bamiyan (Afghanistan) (AFP)
In Bamiyan, a mythical valley in central Afghanistan, the Taliban are standing guard near the cavities that housed the two famous giant Buddhas that their leaders and elders blasted in 2001.
"The Buddhas were destroyed by the Taliban authorities in 2001" mentions an engraved bronze plaque, sealed in the stone.
The flag of the Sunni radical movement is planted on a gatehouse in which two young armed men seem to perish of boredom, two meters away.
According to Ali A. Olomi, a historian specializing in the Middle East at Penn State Abington University in the United States, Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, appointed prime minister of the Taliban government last month, is "one of the architects of the destruction of Buddhas ".
When asked if, in retrospect, it was a good idea to blow up the statues, in what will remain one of the greatest crimes against World Heritage, Saifurrahman Mohammadi, a young talib recently appointed to the directorate of Cultural Affairs of the Bamiyan province, badly conceals its embarrassment.
He recently spoke on this subject, via Skype, with Unesco officials withdrawn to Pakistan and whom he asked to return to Afghanistan, guaranteeing their safety.
- Crossroads of civilizations -
Over the centuries Indian, Persian, Turkish, Chinese, Mughal and Hellenic influences have intersected there, forming a crossroads of civilizations unique in the world and leaving behind them, in many sites, many of which remain unexplored, an extraordinary archaeological heritage.
Local officials and former Unesco employees in Bamiyan, refugees abroad or gone into hiding, assured AFP that a thousand priceless pieces, which were stored in three warehouses in Bamiyan, were stolen or destroyed, thanks to the Taliban seizure of power in mid-August, which in the province was carried out practically without violence.
"I confirm that looting did take place, but it was before our arrival, thanks to the vacuum left by the old authorities when they fled," Mohammadi said.
"We are investigating and trying to recover them. We have plans for that. And the work of the Unesco cultural center continues."
Indeed, carpenters are busy in the two monumental buildings overlooking Bamiyan and are almost completed, noted AFP journalists.
The project (some twenty million dollars, financed by Unesco and South Korea) was to be inaugurated with great fanfare in early October.
The site where the statue of Buddha Shahmama once stood before being destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001, in Bamiyan province west of Kabul, October 2, 2021 BULENT KILIC AFP
"Now we have to see how it will work," said Philippe Delanghe, in charge of the Culture program at the Unesco office in Kabul, from Brussels where he is withdrawn.
"We have received the green light from New York, I am considering a return to Afghanistan next week. The current administration wants our return, collaboration. It seems pretty secure. I will see how to get to Bamiyan as soon as possible." , he said.
- Never rebuilt -
In their statements since taking power, the Taliban authorities insist on their desire to protect the exceptional archaeological heritage of the country, despite the global trauma created by the images of Buddhas disappearing in the crash and clouds of dust.
Taliban in front of the site where the statue of Buddha Shahmama stood before being destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001, in Bamiyan province west of Kabul, October 2, 2021 BULENT KILIC AFP
"We feel that there is a will among them to say that things are going well and that: + heritage, that interests us +", indicates to AFP Philippe Marquis, director of the French archaeological delegation in Afghanistan (Dafa ), currently in France.
“They realized that heritage protection activities provide work and regular income,” while the country's economic situation is dire, he adds.
"I think that these are quite pragmatic people, who say to themselves: + We have to make our country run. What works? +".
In the meantime, pieces of the Buddhas, blocks of sandstone where traces of cold scissors from the 6th century remain in places, lie under poor awnings of wood and canvases torn by the winds of the valley.
The site where the statue of Buddha Shahmama was located before being destroyed by the Taliban in March 2001, in the province of Bamiyan west of Kabul, on October 2, 2021 BULENT KILIC AFP
They had survived in the 17th century the assaults of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and in the 18th century those of the Persian king Nader Shah, who was content to disfigure them.
After years of procrastination, world scholars seem to have reached a consensus: they will never be rebuilt.
© 2021 AFP