{"id":83813,"date":"2013-04-24T11:20:27","date_gmt":"2013-04-24T05:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=83813"},"modified":"2013-04-27T06:02:02","modified_gmt":"2013-04-27T00:32:02","slug":"a-chinese-threat-to-afghan-buddhas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-chinese-threat-to-afghan-buddhas\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A Chinese Threat to Afghan Buddhas\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>When I first traveled to Afghanistan in 2004, I immediately fell in love with the country and its people, and I was optimistic that the young people in Kabul would soon have better lives. Yet my hopes dimmed as I learned about a revolving door of exploitation at the hands of the Russians, Americans and now the Chinese \u2014 who have begun mining Afghanistan\u2019s plentiful natural resources and threatening priceless national heritage sites.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-chinese-threat-to-afghan-buddhas\/download-1-2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-83824\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-83824\" title=\"download (1)\" src=\"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/download-1-300x144.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"144\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/download-1-300x144.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/04\/download-1.jpg 323w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>In 2007, the Chinese state-owned China Metallurgical Group Corporation (M.C.C.) won the rights to mine copper at a site called Mes Aynak. Situated in volatile Logar Province, Mes Aynak is home to one of the world\u2019s largest untapped copper deposits \u2014 worth more than $100 billion. Yet, as this Op-Doc video shows, the site also houses the astonishing\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2012\/12\/23\/opinion\/sunday\/chinese-led-copper-mining-threatens-afghan-buddhist-monasteries.html?_r=0\">remains of an ancient Buddhist city<\/a>, which archaeologists are now racing to save. An international team has only until June to finish the excavations, which began in 2009. So far they have uncovered golden Buddhist statues, dozens of buildings and fragile Buddhist manuscripts buried within temples. Yet perhaps 90 percent of the site remains underground and unseen. To finish the job could take decades. In all likelihood, the destruction of the Buddhist sites will begin later this year. The Afghan government is letting this happen \u2014 it\u2019s a tragedy that echoes the notorious destruction of the Buddhas at Bamiyan in 2001.<\/p>\n<p>Yet, even after four trips to Afghanistan to report this story, it\u2019s difficult for me to know for sure what will become of Mes Aynak. Recent repeated attempts to contact the M.C.C. to confirm the mining timeline for this story have gone unanswered. There is widespread corruption and virtually no government transparency in Afghanistan, and the M.C.C. contract has never been made public.<\/p>\n<p>I have heard arguments in favor of the mining. The copper deal is the largest foreign investment and private business venture in Afghanistan\u2019s history. There is hope among some Afghans that this Chinese deal will bring real and positive change to Afghanistan \u2014 jobs, infrastructure and money to help fuel economic growth. Some of the Buddhist artifacts are being rescued, and it\u2019s possible that not all of the ancient sites will be destroyed by the mining.<\/p>\n<p>But I worry that nothing positive will come from this mining project. I fear the mineral resource is being undervalued, that money will be lost to corruption in the Afghan ministries and that jobs at the mine will go to Chinese immigrants. Geologists tell me that, as a result of the open-pit style of mining, the site will most likely become so toxic that nothing can ever live there again. Money can come and go, but these precious historical artifacts will be gone forever.<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><em>*<a href=\"http:\/\/www.medill.northwestern.edu\/faculty\/journalismfulltime.aspx?id=139705\">Brent E. Huffman<\/a>\u00a0is a documentary filmmaker and assistant professor at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He is expanding the material in this Op-Doc into a feature-length documentary. This article appeared on\u00a0\u00a0April 23 New York Times<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":83824,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,3402],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83813","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-editors-choice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>\u2018A Chinese Threat to Afghan Buddhas\u2019 - Colombo Telegraph<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/a-chinese-threat-to-afghan-buddhas\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018A Chinese Threat to Afghan Buddhas\u2019 - 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