Again: Islamists destroy monuments, this time in Timbuktu
Al Qaeda-backed Islamists in Mali destroyed centuries-old UNESCO sites Saturday, recalling the 2001 destruction of Buddha statues in Afghanistan by the Taliban.
A traditional mud structure stands in the Malian city of Timbuktu. Al Qaeda-linked Mali Islamists armed with Kalashnikovs and pick-axes began destroying prized mausoleums of saints in the UNESCO-listed northern city of Timbuktu on June 30, in front of shocked locals, witnesses said.
Adama Diarr/REUTERS
Bamako, Mali
Al Qaeda-linked Mali Islamists聽armed with Kalashnikovs and pick-axes destroyed centuries-old聽mausoleums of saints in the UNESCO-listed city of Timbuktu on聽Saturday in front of shocked locals, witnesses said.
The Islamist Ansar Dine group backs strict sharia, Islamic聽law, and considers the shrines of the local Sufi version of聽Islam to be idolatrous. Sufi shrines have also been attacked by聽hardline Salafists in Egypt and Libya in the past year.
The attack came just days after UNESCO placed Timbuktu on聽its list of heritage sites in danger and will recall the 2001聽dynamiting by the Taliban of two 6th-century statues of Buddha聽carved into a cliff in Bamiyan in central Afghanistan.
"They are armed and have surrounded the sites with pick-up聽trucks. The population is just looking on helplessly," local聽journalist Yeya Tandina said by telephone.
Tandina and other witnesses said Ansar Dine had already聽destroyed the mausoleums of three local saints 鈥撀燬idi Mahmoud,聽Sidi El Mokhtar, and Alfa Moya 鈥撀燼nd at least seven tombs.
"The mausoleum doesn't exist any more and the cemetery is as聽bare as a soccer pitch," local teacher Abdoulaye Boulahi said of聽the Mahmoud burial place.
"There's about 30 of them breaking everything up with聽pick-axes and hoes. They've put their Kalashnikovs down by their聽side. These are shocking scenes for the people in Timbuktu,"聽said Boulahi.
Contacted late on Saturday, Tandina said Ansar Dine had聽halted the attacks on the holy site. Attempts to contact members聽of the group were unsuccessful.
Locals said the attackers had threatened to destroy all of聽the 16 main mausolem sites by the end of the day. UNESCO聽Director-General Irina Bokova called for an immediate halt.
"There is no justification for such wanton destruction and I聽call on all parties engaged in the conflict to stop these聽terrible and irreversible acts," she said in a statement. The聽sites date from Timbuktu's Golden Age in the 16th century.
France's Foreign Ministry condemned the attacks on what it聽called "a part of the soul of this prestigious Sahelian city."
Ansar Dine has gained the upper hand over less well-armed聽Tuareg-led separatists since the two joined forces to rout聽government troops and seize control in April of the northern聽two-thirds of the inland West African state.
Salt, Slaves, Gold, and Learning
Located on an old Saharan trading route that saw salt from聽the Arab north exchanged for gold and slaves from black Africa聽to the south, Timbuktu blossomed in the 16th century as an聽Islamic seat of learning, home to priests, scribes, and jurists.
Mali had in recent years sought to create a desert tourism聽industry around Timbuktu but even before April's rebellion many聽tourists were being discouraged by a spate of kidnappings of聽Westerners in the region claimed by Al Qaeda-linked groups.
UNESCO's World Heritage Committee said this week it had聽accepted the request of the Malian government to place Timbuktu聽on its list of endangered heritage sites.
"The Committee ... also asked Mali's neighbours to do all in聽their power to prevent the trafficking in cultural objects from聽these sites," it said of the risk of looting.
The rebel seizure of the north came as the southern capital,聽Bamako, was struggling with the aftermath of a March 22 coup.
Mali's neighbors are seeking UN backing for a military聽intervention to stabilize the country but Security Council聽members say they need more details on the mission being planned.
* Writing and additional reporting by Mark John in Dakar; and聽John Irish in Paris; Editing by Roger Atwood