BAMAKO: Islamists occupying Timbuktu in northern Mali were using pickaxes yesterday to destroy any remaining mausoleums in the ancient city, an Islamist leader said.
“Not a single mausoleum will remain in Timbuktu, Allah doesn’t like it. We are in the process of smashing all the hidden mausoleums in the area,” an Ansar Dine leader, Abou Dardar said. The claims were confirmed by witnesses, and backed by a resident who said he belongs to Al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb (AQIM), the other militant group occupying the fabled city since a March coup plunged the west African state into chaos.
Anything that doesn’t fall under Islam “is not good. Man should only worship Allah”, said the AQIM resident Mohamed Alfoul. “The Islamists are currently in the process of destroying all the mausoleums in the area with pickaxes,” one witness confirmed.
“I saw Islamists get out of a car near the historic mosque of Timbuktu. They smashed a mausoleum behind a house,” another resident said. Ansar Dine, which considers the city’s cultural treasures blasphemous, first began its campaign of destruction in July after UN cultural organisation UNESCO put Timbuktu on its list of endangered world heritage sites.
The International Criminal Court warned that their campaign of destruction was a war crime but the Islamists followed up with more damage in October, when they smashed several Muslim saints’ tombs, prompting another international outcry. AFP
