Timbuktu faces cultural crimes against humanity

Timbuktu's ancient historical sites have recently come under attack by Islamic militants.

By TIMOTHY SPANGLER
Tuareg nomad stands near 13th century mosque at Timbuktu 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Tuareg nomad stands near 13th century mosque at Timbuktu 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
For many, the word “Timbuktu” is shorthand for somewhere almost too far away to imagine, evoking a sense of distance and isolation.
In reality, Timbuktu is a small desert city in the war-torn African country of Mali, where recent attacks on ancient historic sites by Islamic militants have been labeled cultural crimes against humanity.
Mali was subject of a coup in March, in response to concerns over the continued insurgency of the northern Tuareg people. The Tuaregs are a proud tribe also found in Algeria, Chad and Niger, and who provided Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi with a steady supply of mercenaries. When NATO’s goals of regime change in Libya were realized, many of these Taureg fighters promptly returned home.
In the chaos that ensued after the coup, a group of Islamic militants known as Ansar Dine, or “Protectors of the Faith”, quickly took control of Northern Mali away from the secular Taureg insurgents and began launching their own Islamist purges. 
The Ansar Dine rebels, which consists of fighters from Mali as well as Algeria and Nigeria, have been building momentum in recent months.  Their declared intention is to establish an Islamic state called “Azawad” and govern in compliance with Shariah law.
Last week, these militants desecrated ancient tombs and mausoleums dating back to the 14th century that had house early Islamic saints.  Ansar Dine allege that these burial sites, which have been designated World Heritage Sites by UNESCO, were idolatrous, since Islam purportedly prohibits any building on a grave site. Worshipping at the tombs was promptly deemed haram by the Ansar Dine, who have links to al-Qaeda, and any locals who broke the new rule were beaten.
This week, locals expressed concern that Timbuktu’s extensive collections of rare books from the 16th and 17th Centuries are now also at risk. Timbuktu is the home of Sufism, a mystic Islamic sect whose beliefs run counter to the extreme interpretations of Ansar Dine and al-Qaeda. Extremists in Egypt and Libya have also targeted Sufi shrines in their own countries for attack.
Scholars now fear that these invaluable collections of historical knowledge are at risk. The Ahmed Baba Institute, which houses over 20,000 rare books, has been reportedly looted by the militants. Reports have also emerged that, in desperation, many books are being buried or hidden underground in order to preserve them from the Ansar Dine.
International bodies have promptly condemned the destruction. UNESCO has declared the actions of Ansar Dine as barbaric, while the International Criminal Court in the Hague have called the destructive acts a war crime.
Is the destruction of a building or a historical site or a collection of manuscripts equivalent to, or even worse than, the loss of human lives?
The loss of a parent or child is devastating to the loved ones who survive. No inanimate object could be given priority over that dead family member.  But there is something pernicious and evil about a military campaign that turns its destructive attention specifically to the cultural heritage of its opponents.
Unfortunately, cultural destruction has been a recurring feature of internecine conflicts in recent years.  In 2001, the Taleban in Afghanistan destroyed the giant statutes at Bamyam because they were images of the Buddha.  In 1991, Serbian militia sought to destroy the picturesque city of Dubrovnik, the pride of Croatia. Clearly, the Ansar Dine are following a well trodden path in their attempts to ensure that their victims suffer defeat on a cultural, as well as a personal, level.
Largely ignored by the West in recent decades, Africa is now at the centre of militant Islamist expansion. As the clock runs down on the US commitment to Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda has its eyes on sub-Saharan Africa.
In addition to Mali, al-Qaeda backed militants are active in Somalia and Nigeria.  Africa may soon replace Yemen as the primary source of new radicalized recruits.  A flow of weapons from Libya and other Arab Spring countries is now heading south.  Insecurity and violence in this region may eventually become contagious.
How is America responding to these increased threats?
At a base in Stuttgart, Germany, US military strategy in the region is coordinated by the US Africa Command, or Africom.  Established in 2077, Africom has responsibility for chasing al-Qaeda operatives across the continent. For example, about 100 US special forces troops are engaged in tracking down Joseph Kony’s brutal Lord’s Resistance Army.
The foreign press have begun to refer to the US presence in Africa as a “secret war.”  But the risk of regional instability appears to be growing, and turning our back on the poverty and violence across Africa no longer appears to be a viable plank of American foreign policy.
Mali is increasingly resembling the next Somalia, as central authority evaporates and lawlessness fills the gaps between local strongmen vying for short-term advantages. As Ansar Dine consolidates its power around Timbuktu, the rest of the world must decide, as it watches the destruction of our common human cultural inheritance, how to most effectively use internationally diplomacy to provide for security and stability in this impoverished region.
If, however, the distance and isolation of Timbuktu ultimately triumphs, then the loss of irreplaceable historical and cultural treasures will be suffered by all of us for generations to come.
The writer is a commentator who divides his time between the United Kingdom and Southern California. He has appeared on CNN, CNBC, BBC and Sky News, and has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Financial Times and the Economist.