Afghanistan's cultural treasures vanishing

By Jason Szep

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan (Reuters) - In a pink sandstone cliff overlooking the ancient Afghan Silk Route city of Bamiyan, tour guide Hussain darts into a dark cave that once gleamed with 7th-century frescos.

He soon peers out. "It's empty," says Hussain after nimbly scaling a narrow path up the sheer rock face. "It's been looted."

Afghanistan's cultural treasures are vanishing in illegal excavations that are growing bolder and more sophisticated since U.S.-led forces toppled the ultra-conservative Taliban regime in 2001, as smugglers feed on lawlessness outside the capital Kabul.

"It's a nightmare," said Roland Besenval, director of the Delegation Archeologique Francaise en Afghanistan (DAFA), which pioneered Afghan excavation work in 1922.

"After maybe two, three or four years it will be impossible to reconstruct the history of some areas of Afghanistan because all the archaeological sites will be completely destroyed."

Nearly all of Afghanistan's 2,800 known excavation sites, spanning 100,000 years of human history, are suffering from some form of pillaging, said Abdul Wasey Feroozi, director general of Afghanistan's National Institute of Archaeology."

"The government does not have the power to control all areas," he said from an office in Kabul where a lean budget has kept his staff of 40 on typewriters instead of computers. "How is it possible for us to control all these areas?"

MERCY OF WARLORDS

Archaeologists say many sites are at the mercy of militia commanders, or "warlords", who nominally answer to the government but operate with impunity and often protect smugglers for a fee.

"This country is crowded with wonderful archaeological treasures. There are thousands of sites. Looting is happening at almost every one," said Martin Hadlow, head of the United Nations' cultural arm, UNESCO.

"It's a multi-million dollar industry - the biggest cultural industry in the country unfortunately."

Adding to the problem are landmines plaguing areas such as Bagram, the Kushan emperor's 2nd Century AD summer capital and a trove of Chinese lacquers, Greco-Roman bronze, Roman glassware and Indian ivories, according to the last official excavations.

"Last year we visited a site in Bagram and in the evening a man from the village was killed by a landmine very near where we were," said Besenval. "But sometimes the looters use the mines to protect their work.

"They say 'don't go there, it's mined,' but you can see there is looting," he added.

THRIVING IN CHAOS

Looting thrived in the chaos of Afghanistan's 1992-1996 civil war and eased under the ultra-strict Taliban. A power vacuum in much of the country under the current U.S.-backed government revived it with a vengeance. And now it's better organized.

Smugglers bring pictures and lists of premium artifacts to villages, recruiting locals to dig for a pittance.

The bounty is then usually shipped to markets in Peshawar in neighboring Pakistan and sold, often to private collectors in the Middle East and Southeast Asia, archaeologists say.

"In the 1990s the problem existed but in the war everyone was concentrating on survival. Now we are finding objects of great artistic value in markets," said Ana Rosa Rodriguez of the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage.

One Peshawar market seller in 2001 offered $30,000 for a schist bas relief of a Buddha worshipped by the Kasyapa Brothers from the 2nd-5th Century, a piece that vanished from Kabul's National Museum during fighting in the capital.

It ended up in Japan. UNESCO's Hadlow said a Tokyo museum had agreed to return the piece and was holding it in trust. But an official at Kabul's National Museum said 70 percent of its artifacts are still missing.

"HERITAGE ARMY"

Like other sites, Bamiyan has been gutted of treasure. The Taliban famously destroyed its colossal twin 1,600-year-old Buddhas in 2001, and looters pillaged caves that once glittered with art fusing symbolism from Greece, Persia and India.

Villagers say the looting stopped in Bamiyan several months ago when the Afghan army set up camp near the rubble of the larger of the two Buddhas. Several caves are preserved, barricaded by locked doors. But villagers say it is too late.

"What I have seen smuggled breaks my heart," said Mohammad Sajad Mohsini, a bearded village elder. "Many people sold pieces because they were out of work. They didn't realize what they were doing. Now nearly everything is gone."

Bamiyan's security is an exception.

At Kharwar, an ancient city in central Afghanistan dating from around the 7th Century shortly before the arrival of Islam, four of nine policemen sent to guard the site were murdered. The rest quit.

A archaeology summit in Kabul scheduled for this month to discuss the problem was recently cancelled due to security fears.

Under new legislation, the Ministry of Information and Culture will inherit a "heritage army" of about 500 troops to protect the sites. "It's a good start," said Rodriguez. "But the big question is whether they will enforce the law."

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