World Heritage in Danger: The Effect of Armed Conflict on World Heritage sites
Among the UNESCO list of World Heritage there are many listed properties that have been put on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger. There are currently 48 sites listed on the danger list from all over the world. The reasons for a site’s inclusion onto this list range from environmental hazards to modernization of the surroundings of historical or archaeological sites. Of all the many reasons for a specific site to be put onto the List of World Heritage in Danger one of the biggest threats that a site can face is the threat of destruction as a result of warfare and armed conflict.
I have chosen to look at two specific sites that have been affected by armed conflicts or are currently being threatened by warfare.
Located in what is considered by many to be the cradle of civilization are many different World Heritage sites in modern day Iran, Iraq and Syria. The recent Gulf wars in the region in the 1990s and early 2000s have caused a somewhat unstable environment both politically and culturally and have created militant factions such as ISIS (The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and the Al Qaeda Taliban have emerged as some of the most destructive forces to the heritage in the region, even though the heritage that they are destroying is their own. In both Iraq and Afghanistan these militant groups have caused irreversible damage to sites based on their religious beliefs.
The Cultural Landscape and Archaeological Remains of the Bamiyan Valley in Afghanistan are a prime example of how a groups intolerance of other people’s heritage can be the most detrimental force to the protection of World Heritage site. The Bamiyan Valley was once a testament to the varied heritage and coexistence of people for over a thousand years with examples of Buddhist artwork as well as the Islamic artwork.
In 2003 after the sites inscription onto the UNESCO World Heritage List however the Taliban decided that only their Islamic heritage at the site should exist and used explosives to destroy the massive Buddhist statues. This caused an uproar throughout the world and today the site has been inscribed onto the World Heritage in Danger List in an attempt to help safeguard the heritage of the region (UNESCO).
The Taliban’s selective destruction of the non-Islamic just goes to show how important the protection of world heritage is because of how easily they can be lost.
Sites such as the Medieval Monuments in Kosovo located in the Balkan Peninsula with its ethnic complexity pose an interesting challenge to World heritage protection because both the Albanian and the Serbians claim the heritage of these Byzantine sites.
The tensions over claim have led to the necessity of armed soldiers to protect the medieval churches and monasteries from either ethnic group. A fresco painting of the early Serbian Kings in one of the churches has been deliberately vandalized during the ottoman occupation of the region.
The site was inscribed onto the world heritage list in 2004 and was later put onto the Heritage in Danger List in 2006 when tensions between the Albanians and the Serbians of the area started to rise (UNESCO). Since its inscription on the danger list tensions have not much stabilized, eight years after Kosovo’s declared independence there are still protests.
Of all of the dangers that are posed to World Heritage sites the destruction and damages caused by conflict are the biggest yet most avoidable. Where some sites such as the Everglades in Florida are in danger because of irreversible environmental change, the fact that warfare and conflict are completely caused by human’s means that they can be stopped or at least changed. The purpose of the UNESCO World heritage list is to help educate people and protect the shared heritage of the world, and maybe someday the importance of other groups’ heritage will be taken into account during conflict avoiding irreplaceable loss of World Heritage.
