Errico de Maio, Ambassador of Italy in Pakistan, Chairman of the SPACH, Islamabad, Pakistan, answers.

 

In the past, and in the present, what are your relationships with Afghanistan?

Since early 1997, I cover the function of Chairman of the Society for the preservation of Afghanistan cultural heritage (SPACH). SPACH, was established in 1994 in Islamabad, Pakistan, by a group of concerned individuals, in response to a growing awareness for the vulnerability of Afghanistan’s cultural heritage. Through its newsletters, lectures and interviews with the media, SPACH aims at disseminating information about the state of collections, historic monuments and archaeological sites in Afghanistan and at increasing its international membership. Through advocacy within Afghanistan SPACH pursues its efforts to limit destruction of this significant part of the world’s cultural heritage. SPACH supports also assessment missions to sites of historic importance and is undertaking some emergency preservation work and an inventory for the National Museum in Kabul.

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

As you know Afghanistan has been in war for these last twenty years. This conflict has produced irredeemable physical damage to the country archaeological heritage. An outstanding example is the Museum of Kabul which has been massively looted of what remained in the Darulaman building after its bombing in 1993. While illegal trade in Afghan artifacts has always existed, the Kabul Museum had a remarkable security record. Objects from the museum were never traded before the war; the flood began in 1993. SPACH is currently providing assistance to the Kabul authorities in making an inventory of the remaining objects of the museum. SPACH has also on some occasion recovered from dealers objects belonging to the museum and kept them in safe locations until their return to the museum.

The cities’ architectural and archaeological heritage has been daily deteriorating over the years because of misappropriation and simple inattention to maintenance. One example is the archaeological site of Tapa Sardar in Ghazni. In summer 1999, SPACH sponsored the visit of the archaeologist, Prof. Maurizio Taddei to make an assessment of the present state of the site. He reported considerable damages and losses. However, not everything is lost thanks to some protections made by the Italian Archaeological Mission in the years before 1978. Prof. Taddei recommended to SPACH to carry out some repairing of the roofs and to protect what is left from a row of unbaked-clay stupas and thrones, by filling the trench with sands for the time being.

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

The situation in Afghanistan is still unpredictable and it is difficult and probably unwise to make any long-term plan in the country. However SPACH will increase its presence in Afghanistan by contracting a representative in Kabul. His tasks will be to train human resources and supervise some emergency measures to protect major monuments and archaeological sites. In view of the tragic brain drain of qualified Afghans, there is an acute shortage of trained specialist to carry out preservation and conservation work according to internationally accepted standards. This was confirmed by a survey carried out last summer by SPACH. Training is therefore a priority and SPACH will use a small grant made available by UNESCO to set some practical training courses in Afghanistan. It is also important to continue to encourage traditional craft such as the tile workshop at the Masjid-I-Jami in Herat that is receiving some financial assistance from our organization. As far as protection of monuments is concerned, SPACH will carry out some emergency actions on monuments and sites when needed. Two small projects have or are about to start; the construction of a small wall to stop water erosion of the basis of the Jam Minaret (probably the most beautiful minaret worldwide) and other work to strengthen the minarets of the Musallah Complex in Herat. These are some activities besides advocacy that SPACH can carry out in view of its limited means, an average annual budget of US$50,000. We hope of course that more funds will come to help in preserving Afghanistan’s cultural heritage.