Archeologia

Director of Foundation Bibliotheca Afghanica, Liestal, Switzerland.

In the past, what had been your relation with Afghanistan?

In the late 1960's my interest in Afghanistan started from the fact, that it was a never colonised society. Together with my wife I spent months by car, on foot and horseback travelling through almost the whole country. In 1975 we created a center of information and documentation on Afghanistan by the name of Bibliotheca Afghanica. In 1983 it was transformed into a Foundation under the supervision of the Swiss Government. At that time we did important research on Human rights violations for the special rapportteur to the UN, Prof. Felix Ermacora. After the Soviet withdrawal in 1989 political negotiations started in our institute, concerning the transfer of power. It was at the time already that the Afghan Government asked Switzerland, to take care of its cultural treasures and house them temporarily at a safe place outside Afghanistan.

What is your current relationship with this country?

As director of the Foundation BA I travel regularly to Afghanistan for discussions with the decision makers of both warring sides. In 1998 I spent three months there, and one of the main outcomes was the common wish of Afghan leaders to protect the national cultural property from further looting and destruction. During my journey I even organized some work at Bamiyan in order to protect the fesco paintings from damages by intruding water.

What du you think of the actions carried out during this last twenty years to preserve his archaeological heritage?

Up to now not much practical work was done in order to protect and preserve the archaeological heritage of Afghanistan. At least UNESCO as well as the two leading private organizations created awareness of the problematic situation. Remaining artefacts from Kabul-Museum were brought inside the city of Kabul and catalogued. Experts went to different places, like Ghazni, Bamiyan, Herat, Jam, Balkh, etc. in order to investigate possibilities for future measures of protection and conservation. SPACH evaluated possibilities to procure materials from the Pakistani antiques market. UNESCO tried to put Bamiyan on the list of World Cultural Heritage. The UN-Organization HABITAT financed the reconstruction of the pavillon in the famous Bagh-e Babur at Kabul by Afghan craftsmen – but without any specific experience and guidance – on the basis of some post-card pictures !!! They were not aware of the existence of a detailed report on the site, published years ago by the Italian ISMEO-Institute. And so on…

What are your future projects in Afghanistan? Are you ready to engage the means or new programmes to safeguard his heritage?

Our own present project is based on the wishes of members of the two warring factions, to preserve the remains of the Afghan cultural heritage temporarily outside Afghanistan. With the explicit accord of UNESCO and the official support of the Swiss Government and its National UNESCO-Commission we are preparing an Afghanistan-Museum in Exile in Switzerland, based in the village of Bubendorf, near Basle. We do not intend to buy any materials from the market, but we will (and we did already) receive objets from inside Afghanistan, as well as from different sources outside the country. The Museum-building is now under restoration, partly executed free of charge by Afghans living in exile in Switzerland. One first show-room was inaugurated just a few days ago on the occasion of the 20^th anniversary of the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan (26.12.1979). We hope to be able to open a first substantial part of the Afghanistan-Museum on the occasion of the celebration of the Afghan New year (nonruz) on 21^st of March 2000.

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