Islamists Destroy Ancient Tombs in Northern Mali

Ansar Dine Islamists in Mail have launched a campaign to destroy several historic tombs in the ancient city of Timbuktu.

The al Qaeda-linked group claims the tombs violate Islamic law.

Last week, militants attacked and damaged several sites in Timbuktu.

Now, it was reported that they completely destroyed two ancient tombs at the city’s famous Djingareyber mosque.

Alida Boye was the coordinator of the Timbuktu Manuscript Project at the University of Oslo, in Norway.

Read the Transcript
The text below is a phonetic transcript of a radio story broadcast by PRI’s THE WORLD. It has been created on deadline by a contractor for PRI. The transcript is included here to facilitate internet searches for audio content. Please report any transcribing errors to theworld@pri.org. This transcript may not be in its final form, and it may be updated. Please be aware that the authoritative record of material distributed by PRI’s THE WORLD is the program audio.

Lisa Mullins: There’s an al-Qaeda group in Africa that’s been raising its profile. The group is called Ansar Dine and it is an Islamist militant group in Mali. It’s launched a campaign to destroy several historic tombs in the ancient city of Timbuktu. The militants claim that the tombs violate Islamic law. Last week they attacked and damaged several sites in Timbuktu and now it’s being reported that the group completely destroyed two ancient tombs. Alida Boye is a former coordinator of the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project which is at the University of Oslo, in Norway. Could you describe for us these tombs that have been destroyed?

Alida Boye: The tombs are as you say, they’re ancient tombs, most of them from, many of them from the Middle Ages. And most of them in Timbuktu, they’re made of mud, adobe, like you have in Santa Fe in the United States. These tombs are also made of mud.

Mullins: Who is in the tombs?

Boye: You probably heard about Timbuktu and the 333 saints. These saints, they were real people. They were great scholars of the time and the scholars of today can trace back to teachings of Islam in Timbuktu, back to these scholars or saints as one calls them, so this generation really has to do with teachings and the scholarship, and teaching not only of regal traditions within Islam, but also astronomy, medicine, all the great scholarship of Timbuktu.

Mullins: When you learn of events like this and fear more coming, I just wonder what your reaction is.

Boye: I’m very sad, of course. I’m shocked with the whole situation and there’s so little we can do because if anyone came with any kind of military intervention, the first thing they would use is these monuments, so the people of Timbuktu have done what they can, and the children, the youth are ready to mobilize and go out, but they were so afraid that there would be a blood bath. So there’s a sense of hopelessness with I think every Malian and people who know this area are going through.

Mullins: Okay, thank you very much.

Boye: Okay, thank you.

Copyright ©2009 PRI’s THE WORLD. All rights reserved. No quotes from the materials contained herein may be used in any media without attribution to PRI’s THE WORLD. This transcript may not be reproduced, in whole or in part, without prior written permission. For further information, please email The World’s Permissions Coordinator at theworld@pri.org.