Mali: Timbuktu Locals Saved Some of City’s Ancient Manuscripts from Islamists
The preservationists of Timbuktus centuries-old artifacts have been holding their breath for weeks, waiting for the moment when the French military would seize back Malis ancient northern capital from the Islamic militants who have occupied it for 10 months. At stake were the citys most precious treasures: tens of thousands of centuries-old, priceless calligraphed manuscripts, whose fate under the jihadists rule was deeply uncertain.
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When Malian and French soldiers rolled into town in armored vehicles early Monday, they found what the preservationists had most dreaded: Timbuktus new Ahmed Baba Institute, an expensive adobe construction opened in 2010 the citys splashiest international project in years had been torched by militants of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb last Thursday as they prepared to flee the French advance. From Bamako, Timbuktus Mayor Hallé Ousmane Cissé, who had fled his city nearly four weeks ago, told journalists that the militants had burned the centers collection of about 40,000 ancient manuscripts, some of the 300,000 or so historic documents stashed in libraries in Timbuktu and the villages around it, mostly as family heirlooms. The manuscripts were a part not only of Malis heritage but the worlds heritage, Cissé told the Guardian. By destroying them, they threaten the world. We have to kill all of the rebels in the north. Reporting from inside the Timbuktu building itself, Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford told viewers that the jihadists had destroyed the centers contents. Meanwhile, Cissé was quoted on the networks website as saying, They torched all the important ancient manuscripts.
That is not so, according to those whove worked for months to keep the documents safe.
In interviews with TIME on Monday, preservationists said that in a large-scale rescue operation early last year, shortly before the militants seized control of Timbuktu, thousands of manuscripts were hauled out of the Ahmed Baba Institute to a safe house elsewhere. Realizing that the documents might be prime targets for pillaging or vindictive attacks from Islamic extremists, staff left behind just a small portion of them, perhaps out of haste, but also to conceal the fact that the center had been deliberately emptied. The documents which had been there are safe, they were not burned, said Mahmoud Zouber, Malis presidential aide on Islamic affairs, a title he retains despite the overthrow of the former President, his boss, in a military coup a year ago; preserving Timbuktus manuscripts was a key project of his office. By phone from Bamako on Monday night, Zouber told TIME, They were put in a very safe place. I can guarantee you. The manuscripts are in total security.
Read more: http://world.time.com/2013/01/28/mali-timbuktu-locals-saved-some-of-their-citys-ancient-manuscripts-from-islamists/#ixzz2JapyXkF9