by Mira Terada for the Saker blog
IMHOclub launches an international campaign to save monuments in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland.
Today, before our eyes, illiterate, embittered people are destroying the legacy of the past. Many have given up, because the most important monuments have already been destroyed, but we ourselves did not defend our shrines, we were indifferent. If this continues, we will soon be “demolished” from the face of the Earth.
We cannot give up we must try to save the legacy of our past, and this can only be done by uniting!
In order to save monuments in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland from vandals, it is necessary to draw UNESCO’s attention to this problem. In 2003, after the barbaric destruction of Buddha statues by the Taliban in Afghanistan, UNESCO adopted a major Declaration on the Deliberate Destruction of Cultural Heritage. This declaration was signed, including by the Governments of the mentioned countries. The organization created an intolerant attitude towards the destroyers of monuments in the world.
Let us be forbidden us to express our protest in public – they fine us, dismiss us from work, deport us, throw us in jail. But we have the right to apply directly to UNESCO and ask for protection from barbarism.
One, ten, a hundred letters may remain unanswered. But if a hundred of thousand or a million caring people apply to UNESCO, then the destruction of the world cultural heritage will be stopped!
Emotions won’t help now. It is possible to pay attention to the existing problem only through official appeals, and for this we need a civil position of every person, regardless of where he lives: in Latvia, Canada, Russia, Lithuania, Poland or France — we can stop this madness if we will work together.
The past is a part of us, destroying it in any form is barbarism.
People who forgets the past has no future!
KNOWLEDGE and LIGHT always defeat IGNORANCE and AGGRESSION. Show your civic position, send a letter from yourself personally. DO IT.
EXPLANATION HOW TO SEND A LETTER
It is important to understand that we send letters directly to the UNESCO secretariat. Since the official languages of UNESCO are English, Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, Russian and French, you can send a letter in any of these languages. Samples of letters in Russian, English, and French are attached below.
Link for downloading emails https://files.fm/u/ntart9bxn
The prepared letters meet all standards and are official.
Download the file and enter into it:
— Your Last name and First Name,
— Address of residence with mandatory specifying of your country
— e-mail.
MANDATORY SIGN THE LETTER.
Make a scan or photo (if you send a photo, make sure that all the data is clearly visible)
Send to: info@unesco.org
Be sure to send a copy to: unesco@imhoclub.com
!!!IMPORTANT!!!
In the subject of the letter, write: Attention General Director UNESCO A. Azoulay.
In the letter itself, put the text (example): I ask you to accept and register the appeal to the Director General of UNESCO A. Azoulay. The letter is attached
Sign the letter with your initials:
Yours faithfully,
Alexander Alexandrov,
UK, 1235, Freedom star.5
alex@inbox.хх
To be sure that the letter has been received, it MUST BE sent by regular mail as well.
If you copy our email to our address: unesco@imhoclub.com or unesco@imhoclub.eu
We will print out ALL THE LETTERS RECEIVED and send them by one large registered letter to the address:
UNESCO 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France
We ask for maximum repost, the more letters, the higher the chances of saving monuments!
Friends, it won’t take much of your time, but it will help stop the destruction of our common cultural heritage. Every letter is important, so take part in this campaign and be sure to tell your friends about it. We will be able to achieve the desired result only by joining forces!
Link for downloading emails https://files.fm/u/ntart9bxn
This is a good cause worth supporting. However, perhaps the reference to the Taliban destruction of Buddha statues is not helpful. Let me explain.
At the time, the Taliban spokesperson noted that UNESCO officials arrived in Afghanistan with funds to help preserve the monument(s). The Taliban officials were, however, understandably outraged that money would be available for such activities while children were starving in their country.
Even the NYT reported on this matter back in March 2001:
NYT: With outrage still fresh around the world over the destruction of two giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan, a Taliban envoy says the Islamic government made its decision in a rage after a foreign delegation offered money to preserve the ancient works while a million Afghans faced starvation.
”When your children are dying in front of you, then you don’t care about a piece of art,” Sayed Rahmatullah Hashimi, the envoy, said in an interview on Friday….
An adviser to the Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, Mr. Rahmatullah gave for the first time here the Taliban’s version of events: how a council of religious scholars ordered the statues destroyed in a fit of indignation.
The destruction, according to his account, was prompted last month when a visiting delegation of mostly European envoys and a representative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization offered money to protect the giant standing Buddhas at Bamiyan, where the Taliban was engaged in fighting an opposition alliance….
At the time the foreign delegation visited, United Nations relief officials were warning that a long drought and a harsh winter were confronting up to a million Afghans with starvation. Mr. Rahmatullah said that when the visitors offered money to repair and maintain the statues, the Taliban’s mullahs were outraged.
”The scholars told them that instead of spending money on statues, why didn’t they help our children who are dying of malnutrition? They rejected that, saying, ‘This money is only for statues.’ ”
”The scholars were so angry,” he continued. ”They said, ‘If you are destroying our future with economic sanctions, you can’t care about our heritage.’ And so they decided that these statues must be destroyed.” The Taliban’s Supreme Court confirmed the edict.
”If we had wanted to destroy those statues, we could have done it three years ago,” Mr. Rahmatullah said. ”So why didn’t we? In our religion, if anything is harmless, we just leave it. If money is going to statues while children are dying of malnutrition next door, then that makes it harmful, and we destroy it.”
see https://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/19/world/taliban-explains-buddha-demolition.html
………………………………
I must admit I have a lot less respect for UNESCO [and many UN-related institutions] lately based on the unhelpful role they’ve played around the conflict in Ukraine and some blatant and shameless Russophobia. But, in any case, maybe leave the Taliban out of it.
I’m sure there are many starry-eyed do-gooders working for UNESCO, however, their Board are the same people who worked tirelessly saving Syrian artefacts and sites from USS IsIsrael.
I was just wondering, in light of the Energy & Food deal Russia has struck with Afghanistan, is whether or not the Taliban remain on Russia’s terrorist org. list.
I am 73 of age sustained by chimio-therapy. The main desire left in me is to see Mother Russia’s land link with Kalilingrad & Transnistria. “….not a step back, Russia”, all they are left with is a set of bluffs. This one is our times Stalingrad: Either we disarm & nationalize globally all things monetary & finance and kick all the merchants of debt & arms out there from their underground hideouts or we, humans, will serve, for the coming centuries, as lemmings at the will of those who believe that this world was given to them by “their” all mighty Yahvé.
Do we need anymore proof that the leaders of the western nations and many at the UN are insane, and are fighting against the lord and His anointed.
Proverbs 23:10
Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:
1 Corinthians 8:4
As concerning therefore the eating of those things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
There is a heaven and a hell, there is one God Jesus Christ and two religions for mankind from the garden of Eden to eternity. Mankind can follow Jesus Christ or follow the Devil. Jesus commanded to love one another, to love your enemies, to do justly, and to love mercy, and walk humbly with the lord. Those that rape, rob, and steal, make war and kill and murder are not following God (Jesus Christ) for that is not love. Love suffers long and is helpful, lifts not up one’s self, but lifts up their neighbor….etc.
I think the people of these countries do not what a reminder of the Soviet Union.
They did not fake their desire to escape, no one wants to be oppressed and no one wants a reminder of the oppressors.