In the shadow of the Buddhas

Asia Times, Oct 4, 2006



In the shadow of the Buddhas
By Aunohita Mojumdar

KABUL - Dead monuments mean more in Afganistan's Bamiyan province than living people.

The Taliban's destruction of the two giant Buddhas in 2001 put Bamiyan squarely on the map of international public consciousness. With widespread outrage at the annihilation of the colossal, centuries-old structures, money has since poured in for the preservation of the site, and the fragments of the Buddhas are being collected and preserved. While that effort is creditable, what



is unfortunate is the continuing neglect of the people of the area. The inhabitants, whose ancestors built and preserved the
structures, are today one of the most neglected communities in all Afghanistan.

In 2003 "the cultural landscape and archeological remains of the Bamiyan Valley" were officially inscribed on the World Heritage list on an emergency basis. The stabilization of the crumbling "great cliff" where the Buddhas were situated, the preservation of the niches with their imprints of the Buddhas, collection of the fragments, preventing theft and preserving the cave paintings were identified as priorities to prevent further destruction through man and natural causes.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) defines "cultural landscapes" as those that "represent the combined works of nature and man". The historic system of irrigation, which has created an intricate pattern of green and yellow terraces, fields on the floor of the Bamiyan Valley, and the "vernacular" architecture using traditional designs and materials were also considered to be part of the unique heritage. The holistic appreciation of the entire area with all its components will certainly make the World Heritage Site much more complete, and a master plan has been prepared to look into all the issues.

However, five years after the ouster of the Taliban and three and a half years after the declaration of the World Heritage Site, the people of Bamiyan still feel neglected and ignored.

The reasons for this are several. The Bamiyan area in the central highlands of the country is home to the Hazaras, the ethnic group that is the lowest in the social order of Afghanistan. The Hazaras are Shi'ites, a religious minority in Afghanistan. The descendents of Mongol or Turkic groups who settled there; they are also racially distinct and have been severely segregated by the other communities.

The Bamiyan area saw horrific massacres of the Hazara population after it fell to the Taliban. Angered by the resistance, including an attack by the Hizb-e-Wahadat that represents the Hazara community, the Taliban massacred 200 ordinary people in Yakawlang in early 2001. Estimates also suggest that a scorch-and-burn policy in several villages left at least 1,000 Hazaras dead, with four mass graves discovered in Bamiyan town alone. Traditionally Hazaras were forced to do menial jobs, while the dominant positions were held by the Pashtun and Tajik communities.

It is a dominance that the people of Bamiyan feel continues to dominate decision-making, denying them the benefits of aid and development. "People at the decision-making level are not so keen to support Bamiyan," said Amir Fuladi, an adviser to the governor of Bamiyan, Habiba Sarobi.

Afghanistan's first and only female governor, Sarobi is more reticent. She does not agree that there is discrimination against the Hazara community, but agrees that if the neglect continues, such accusations may indeed appear to be true.

Bamiyan pays a high price for the neglect. The central highlands are geographically isolated. Being in the middle of the country, the province has no revenue from border trade. There are no industries in the area, which is almost completely dependent on agriculture and animal herding.

"The province is isolated and there is no road accessibility," said Fuladi. "The entire province does not have one meter of asphalt road."

The roads connecting Bamiyan to the capital Kabul are little more than broad dirt tracks, potholed and bumpy. What could be a distance of two to three hours takes anything from eight to 12 hours, provided the vehicle is a four-wheel-drive well equipped with spare tires. Flights to Bamiyan, even if they were affordable, are only provided by the UN or by Paktec, which serves non-governmental organizations. There are no flights for ordinary travelers.

With no local industry and bad roads, getting materials to Bamiyan is extremely difficult, said Fuladi, pointing out that in this area, at an altitude of 2,500 meters, even the construction season is extremely short - five months. The lack of road connectivity also prevents any significant revenue generation from the agricultural produce and animal husbandry as nothing can be exported out of the province.

Asked to list her priorities for the province, Sarobi said: "Roads, roads and roads." She compared the province's situation with the millions being spent on road building in the south and wonders why nothing reaches her area. After three years of promises to the people of the province, President Hamid Karzai inaugurated a road-building project three weeks ago, but how soon that connectivity is achieved remains to be seen.

The main reason for the neglect, many in the province feel, lies in security. Bamiyan today is one of the most secure areas of the country, and Sarobi and others feel the province is paying a price for this. All attention in the country is focused on the areas now facing insurgency. Even while the international community and the government chant the mantra of how difficult it is to provide development in insecure areas, one sees no signs that areas that are relatively secure are benefiting. Rather than set an example by developing Bamiyan, which could be seen as a model of the stakes of peace, the province is not considered worthy of attention.

"Because we have security here, there is a lack of attention," said Fuladi. "Stability or security has no advantage for us."

But security may deteriorate, he said, if the relations between the government and the community continue to deteriorate as people get more and more angry. "There should be a change of strategy. They should support a stable and safe area so that people feel that peace leads to development."

The amount of corruption and misuse of resources in a stable area is also very little, he says. Pointing out that millions of dollars are being spent on provinces in the south, Fuladi also compares the lack of aid in his area to the aid pouring into the much smaller province of Panjshir, an area that many believe was made into a separate province for political rather than administrative reasons.

"We are thinking of burning down some paper schools as a symbolic protest," said Abdullah Barat, a founding member of the Bamiyan Preservation Association for Cultural Heritage, in a cynical reference to the burning down of schools in the southern provinces.

Though there is no indigenous base for the Taliban in Bamiyan, what is dangerously missing from the area is a stake in peace. Though the area may not create new Taliban forces, there is also likely to be less resistance to anti-government forces than before. The area has actually seen demobilization and disarmament as opposed to other areas such as Panjshir that merely claim to have demobilized, and people in Bamiyan would not be able to put up stiff resistance. Moreover, what is currently merely the anger of the disgruntled may in future turn into support for any instability. Anti-government elements who choose to operate in the area may not find the people unwilling hosts.

Bamiyan has also seen a sharp drop in cultivation of opium poppies. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Bamiyan has seen a reduction in the area under poppy cultivation from 803 hectares in 2004 to 17 hectares this year.

Advocating solutions for decreasing poppy cultivation, which has risen by 60% in the country this year, UNODC chief Antonio Maria Costa says in a recent report that "drug and integrity" conditions have to be inserted into aid programs. "The more vigorously district and provincial leaders commit themselves to activity free of opium, the more they deserve generous development assistance," he said.

But sentiments such as these are mere rhetoric to the people of Bamiyan, who see no such linkages in their area. "The message here is: no poppy, no money," said an international worker in the province.

Referring to the province's lack of leverage at the political level, Fuladi said bitterly: "It doesn't really matter [to others] whether Bamiyan is a hell or a heaven. It is so isolated."

The neglect is especially unfortunate since the area is also the most liberal area in the country in terms of its attitude toward woman. Women move relatively freely, wearing colorful clothes rather than the burqa, engaging in work openly. Yet the area gets no credit for this even though the issue of gender justice is one of the main issues that occupy the international community's agenda - at least on paper.

"We have peace. No narcotics. Bamiyan can also be an example of the success of women's rights if I can succeed. Why don't they support me?" wonders Governor Sarobi, saying much of the talk about women's rights is just lip service.

It is not just neglect that makes the tale of Bamiyan a poignant one. The designation of the area as a world heritage site has meant that even normal development, construction of buildings and markets, is at a standstill since there is no room for "unplanned" development. The designation of the entire area as a cultural and historical landscape has meant that all growth must now devolve on the adoption of the master plan. However, as yet there is no coordination, planning or funding for the master plan and even the perimeter boundary of the heritage site is yet to be finalized.

Protection of the vernacular architecture, the beautiful terraced fields and of course the area around the Buddhas has meant that people will have to wait for permissions before building or altering anything. Is Bamiyan being held hostage to its heritage? Sarobi admits that this is a widespread feeling among people in her province and an issue she plans to raise at the next meeting of the international coordination committee on Bamiyan.

There is no tangible benefit to the people yet, admits UNESCO expert Junko Okahashi, assistant program specialist for the Asia and Pacific World Heritage Center, who flew into Bamiyan for a week, though she said it is not too late and that things have to start now.

It is not that there are no non-governmental or UN organizations working in Bamiyan. There were at least 40 by the last count. However, their efforts are piecemeal, uncoordinated and, indeed, in some cases, counterproductive. In the absence of basic infrastructure, the outcome of these projects, however beneficial, has a limited impact.

The issue is not whether the people come first or the monuments. It would be tragic to see further deterioration of great historical heritage, which once lost cannot be retrieved. A successful implementation of the "master plan" is expected to change the fortunes of the locals - eventually. The concern is whether the current efforts at preservation can be combined with community-oriented programs that engage the community in this heritage, building stakes in the local community simultaneously.

"People have no sense of ownership right now," said Fuladi. While the living wait, the international community and organizations pore over the pieces of monuments.

(Aunohita Mojumdar is an Indian journalist who is currently based in Kabul. She has reported on the South Asian region for 16 years and has covered the Kashmir conflict and post-conflict situation in Punjab extensively.)