Recovering the treasures of Afghanistan

Afghanistan's national museum is to get a face-lift

April 3, 2000
Web posted at: 11:54 a.m. HKT (0354 GMT)

From CNN Correspondent Nic Robertson

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Scarred and pockmarked from years of shelling in the country's ongoing civil war, Afghanistan's national museum in Kabul is now poised to undergo a revival.

But workers starting the restoration are less concerned with the condition of the building than the relics plundered from inside -- a collection that documents more than fifty thousand years of Afghanistan's history.

AUDIO Brigitte Neubacher from the Afghanistan Preservation Society comments on the stolen artifacts 193K/15 sec. AIFF or WAV sound

The workers also hope the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will play a role in returning the capital's museum and contents to what it once was.

"Our main demand from the world and UNESCO in particular is to help us in the return of relics that are in overseas museums. We also want our neighboring countries to prevent export, trafficking and sale of the items," said museum worker Dari Masoodi.

And it's not just international help in tracking down the stolen treasures that's needed. Experts say it will cost at least $1,000,000 to complete restoration of the country's once leading center of cultural heritage...money the Taliban running this part of the impoverished country say they don't have.

Experts say it will cost $1,000,000 to complete restoration of the museum and its artifacts

In a move that may help the Taliban get that international support, they appear ready to work with historians intent on recovering Afghanistan's lost treasures.

Brigitte Neubacher of the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage sees signs of hope.

"We have excellent relations with the Taliban and they say finally now they will tell us what is missing, and we can put it on the Internet and make a big international campaign and say this is missing, everybody please give it back, maybe they give it back without this covention, maybe they don't."

Relics representing more than 50,000 years of Afghanistan's history have been stolen from the museum

Any appeal for honesty will be a huge task. The pillage of valuable artifacts during more than two decades of Afghan conflict has become big business, scattering the treasures world wide

Smugglers have profited from a ready market of buyers waiting beyond the war torn country's borders; often passing goods through border towns like Peshawar in Pakistan.

Some of the stolen relics are large and experts predict may easily be recovered but the thousands of smaller items may never be seen again.

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United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
Taleban Islamic Movement Official Web Site Home Page
CIA: The World Factbook 1999: Afghanistan

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