Reading Comprehension
Dated: 18th of Aug, 2012 |
scroll on the bold to get the word meaning |
Passage 03 :
The
wanton and
horrifying destruction of a World Heritage site — the Sidi Yahia mosque — and several ancient tombs at Timbuktu by
radical Islamist
insurgents in Mali is another grim reminder of growing
intolerance towards cultural symbols in
conflict areas. Eleven years after the Bamiyan Buddhas were pulversised by the Taliban and 19 years on from the demolition of the Babri Masjid by Hindutva
fanatics, it is clear that existing international
conventions and the protective measures they offer to
heritage structures are
ineffective. Timbuktu is not, as the English-speaking world conditioned by Orientalist imagination
conjures, an insignificant place located in the back of beyond. Rather, it is a historic city of
captivating beauty.
Saddled between the desert and the
irrigated areas of the river Niger in north Mali, Timbuktu, founded by Tuaregs in the 11th century, flourished as a trading city during the 15th and 16th centuries, and also as a centre of learning. The mosques of Djingareyber, Sankore and Sidi Yahia, built more than 400 years ago, attest to its great past. These
exquisite examples of
earthen architecture along with 16
cemeteries are World Heritage sites. Ansar Dine — the radical Islamist militia which has taken control of the area — considers the mosques dedicated to Sufi saints and structures over graves as
idolatrous, and has
barbarically ravaged them with pickaxes.
What Malians fear more is the condition of about 300,000 ancient
manuscripts. In the past, Timbuktu hosted thousands of students who came to learn about Islam. Books on religious and other subjects were written, copied and traded. Libraries and institutions there such as the Ahmed Baba Institute of Higher Learning and Islamic Research still preserve and use many of them. If these
precious documents meet the same
fate as the
monuments, the loss would be
irreplaceable. Sadly, the World Heritage Convention and the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its two
protocols have turned out to be
toothless. They could not bind the radical militia. Hope now lies in two places. The statute of the International Criminal Court includes as war crimes the
deliberate destruction of cultural properties. Such legal provisions could be improved in scope to become effective deterrents. A
proactive empowerment of local communities to care for and guard their heritage during conflict is another avenue to explore. UNESCO's assistance to local guards in Congo during the time of conflict (2001) to save the world natural heritage sites there was
reassuring. Timbuktu needs more of such support and it needs this urgently.