“UNESCO should expel Afghanistan and Pakistan from its corps”

By Sanjeev Sharma

New Delhi, September 26 (SocialNews.XYZ) UNESCO should expel not only Afghanistan but also Pakistan from its corps. Neither should be eligible for UNESCO assistance. The same goes for China. That all three are currently members of UNESCO’s executive board is a travesty, writes Michael Rubin.

“Rather than protecting cultural heritage, UNESCO’s corruption has made it a catalyst for destruction. In Afghanistan, the world should hold the Taliban to account, ”writes Rubin in the Washington Examiner.

“In Afghanistan, the Taliban are systematically seeking to erase Afghan cultural heritage. They can do so at the behest of Pakistani officials who fear Pashtun nationalism and wish to erase the legacy of various Afghan dynasties as well as the depth of its history. By eliminating Afghan heritage, Pakistan can also justify its own land grabs and alleviate its own lack of self-confidence as a nation, ”Rubin added.

The Taliban are not the only ones seeking to erase the history and vestiges of past plurality. Rubin said Palestinians on the Temple Mount deliberately ruined archaeological sites and dumped ancient artifacts in landfills.

“Beginning in 1949, Communist China systematically destroyed over 6,000 monasteries and much of Tibet’s cultural heritage. They are now implementing the same plan to erase Uyghur heritage, ”he added.

China is also seeking to rewrite history and erase the diversity of the lands it once conquered in pursuit of a largely supremacist Han Chinese narrative, he said.

The Taliban took a bulldozer into a century-old fort whose defenders once wounded the 14th-century warrior Timur, earning him the nickname Timur the Lame or, in its Anglicized form, Tamerlane, he said.

While Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad has repeatedly assured that the Taliban has changed, the Taliban appear to be the same group that in 2001 destroyed the famous 6th century Bamiyan Buddhas that until the Taliban dynamite them, was a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization today symbolizes the problem more than the solution, said Rubin.

In 2005, Azerbaijan destroyed the Julfa Cemetery and its unique collection of century-old khachkars, despite calls from UNESCO to stop its destruction. Rather than punishing Azerbaijan, UNESCO rewarded Azerbaijani dictator Ilham Aliyev by appointing his wife Mehriban Aliyeva as goodwill ambassador. After such venality, it should come as no surprise that Aliyev is now erasing the Armenian heritage of Nagorno-Karabakh, a control over which Armenians and Azeris still argue, Rubin added.

(Sanjeev Sharma can be contacted at [email protected])

Source: IANS

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