Payam-e Mojahed: Concerns about whereabouts of Uzbek contractors in Herat

Text of report by Sayd Jawad Hojat, “Where did personnel of the foreign company go?!!”, published by independent Afghan newspaper Payam-e Mojahed on 25 October

The tomb of Amir Ali Sher Nawayee, located next to the beautiful tomb of Gowhar Shad Khatun in Herat Province, is one of the ancient sites in Herat Province. It has partly been damaged in the past years and required serious repair.

Amir Ali Sher Nawayee was a prudent minister of Sultan Hussain Bayeqra during the Timurid reign, and was a knowledgeable personality of this land.

A foreign company, reportedly from Uzbekistan, has contracted the repairing work of this ancient building, and is to start the repairing work after signing a contract with officials in charge.

The company has placed its working equipment, including heavy and light machinery in areas near the tomb, and has later started its preliminary work. The area has been in the hands of the company for a long time.

The interesting point is that all officials and personnel of the company have suddenly disappeared. No one knows where they are, but all their equipment and machinery still remain in the place they previously were.

Security officials of Herat Province also do not know anything about their whereabouts, and insurgent groups have also not said anything about this.

Locals and witnesses have different ideas. They suspect that during the excavation work around the tomb, personnel of the company might have found something much valuable than their equipment or the contract.

The tomb of Ali Sher Nawayee is located in the centre of Herat city, and the possibility of abduction or murder of the company workers by the Taleban is very far. The people therefore believe that lack of control over activities of foreign companies has once again led to a big mistake.

[Description of Source: Kabul Payam-e Mojahed (Mojahed Voice) in Dari -- Independent pro-mojahedin weekly and the official mouthpiece of Supervisory Council of the Jami'at-e Eslami Party of the late Ahmad Shah Mas'ud. Originally published in Parwan in the north during the Taliban regime, it is now published in Kabul. Often critical of government and supports veteran jihadi leaders like Herat governor Esmai'il Khan. Critical of Western influence and did not suport a role for the former king. OSC IAP20071028950090 25 Oct 07]

AFP: Ancient heritage of Herat disappearing bit by bit beneath concrete

October 19, 2007

HERAT, Afghanistan (AFP) — In the ancient Afghan city of Herat, the fight is on between restoring historical monuments, palaces and houses or demolishing them to make way for bleak structures of smoked glass and concrete.

The battle in this once-essential stop along the Silk Road seems to be going the way of demolition — even if much of it is illegal.

Reconstruction needs a lot of time and work, as well as money and craftsmen skilled in ancient techniques necessary for recreating the vision of ancient architectural plans.

Herat is one of the few cities in Central Asia to have kept its medieval structure despite the march of time and the ravages of war.

In the 1980s the city near the Iranian border was home to around 200,000 inhabitants; today about three million people live here and the buildings stretch for miles.

Those who have swapped their traditional mudbrick homes for the new concrete blocks say they left to escape “the absence of comfort: running water, hot water, electricity and sanitation,” says Bismillah Fateh from the Agha Khan Trust for Culture.

The trust is working to restore a number of sites and lodgings in the western city which is more than 2,000 years old.

“It is a fight every day,” says Daud Sidiq, an architect with the foundation who has restored the Malik Cisterne and Mosque at the foot of the imposing Ikhtyaruddin citadel, the present structure of which was built in the 15th century.

Work is also underway on the palace of Attarbashi, the home of a wealthy physician that was constructed at the turn of the century and which is being restored with the agreement of the owner.

Winter and summer apartments face into a rectangular courtyard. Workers have put a large waterproof plastic sheet into the roof, a contemporary addition to a traditional technique.

Columns of stucco, reinforced with steel and asphalt, are whitewashed with a material made of limestone, ashes and flax, says Sidiq. For added protection from aging, nothing is better than mixing in “egg white, cooking oil and flour,” he says.

“We have been working for three months to bring back the old house,” says the architect, who is passionate about this undertaking.

Down narrow lanes, the historic homes of Kebabi and Akhawan have been entirely renovated and returned to their owners or their descendants.

To enter through their huge wooden gates, one has to choose between two large knockers — one for men and one for women: their different tones alert those inside to whether a man or a woman should answer.

In this maze, traditional structures are being given new life.

There is new paving in the old Jewish quarters, deserted in the 1970s. Two synagogues have been reconverted into a mosque and a school; one remains in ruins and another, its inside painted shiny blue, is being repaired.

The hamman, or bath, is again functioning for a male clientele.

“It is not a very expensive programme,” says Agha Khan urban planner Anna Soave, and there is support from a number of European nongovernment organisations.

The Commission for the Development of the Old City of Herat was created in 2005 but is handicapped by poor coordination between its members who include government and local groups.

The result: an acceleration of the demolition of the old and construction of illegal villas.

“All the illegal construction must be destroyed,” provincial governor Hossein Anwari said.

Reuters: Herat takes action to save ancient minarets

Thu Oct 18, 2007 2:41pm BST
By Sayed Salahuddin

HERAT, Afghanistan (Reuters) – A group of mediaeval minarets in the Afghan city of Herat could be saved thanks to the closure of a busy road threatening their foundations.

The minarets, standing at more than 100 feet, are all that remain of what was once a brilliantly decorated complex for Islamic learning and devotion on the Silk Road on the outskirts of the western Afghan city.

Just over a century ago, more than a dozen minarets stood in Herat, part of a madrasa-mosque complex built in the 15th century.

Most of the camel-colored mud-brick towers, which were once sheathed in sparkling blue, green, white and black mosaic tiles, have toppled during decades of war and neglect.

Experts had hoped the end of Taliban rule in 2001 and the advent of a new government would save the remaining towers.

However, the city’s new-found wealth in the post-Taliban era has served only to heighten concerns about the towers’ stability.

Heavy trucks and cars rumble along a road that runs through the middle of the remaining minarets, shaking the ground and threatening their foundations.

Recently authorities banned trucks from using the road, and on Thursday the head of Herat’s information and culture department said the next step was to build a new road.

“Herat was due to have been included in the list of World’s Cultural Heritage by UNESCO,” Nimatullah Sarwari told Reuters.

“They (UNESCO) had a set of preconditions; preserving the old city and the closure of the road that runs through the minarets. We have prevented big vehicles from using the road and soon we will close the road totally by building a new one.”

Once a bastion of culture and literature, Herat has prospered compared to other parts of Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban, due largely to trade links with Turkmenistan and Iran.

New buildings of glass and concrete are sprouting up, overlooking the old city and challenging the minarets’ command of the skyline for the first time in six centuries.

The old city of Herat is already on the tentative list for inclusion on UNESCO’s register of World Heritage sites.