Saving historic heritage sites from landmines

(22 Jul 2009) SHOTLIST
Bamiyan city, Bamiyan province 14, June, 2009
1. Wide of women covered with burqas walking in front of the remainder of a Buddha statue in Bamiyan city
2. Zoom out of ruins
3. Close up of danger sign
4. Mid of mine attention board
5. Mid of de-miners working for clearing (Shahr-i-Ghulghula) city of noise in Bamiyan city
6. Various of de-miner searching for mines
7. Close of detector
8. Various of de-miner working on mine field
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Shamsuddin Wassiq, UNMACA Demining Team Representative in Bamiyan:
"No one can go inside of the places, which is contaminated with mine. Therefore first the mine be cleared from the area, then the government can start their development program at the site and also other program that they have for conservation of the historical places."
Bamiyan city, Bamiyan province 15, June, 2009
10. Various of Shahr-i-Zahak (known in English as the Red Fort)
11. Close of UXO's (Unexploded Ordinance) found from deferent parts of historical sites in Bamiyan
12. Wide of controlled explosion
13. Mid of smoke
14. Various shots of Sorna Khakzad showing an ancient pot found in Bamiyan's historical sites during demining
15. Close of Khakzad's face
16. Mid of Khakzad holding the pot
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Sorna Khakzad, UNESCO conservationist:
"If we just leave these sites with mine to say 'okay lets protect them from looting', then we lose lots of maybe buildings, or some parts of this site could be eroded in a few years. So these demining activities give us the chance to have this conservation, as I told you, the urgent conservation and we can guarantee the site that at least we could save it and we could safeguard it as it is, and we won't have anymore destruction and erosion."
18. Wide of conservation work going on at the site of small Buddha statue
19. Mid of worker going to the site of work
20. Various of workers working on the statue of Buddha
21. Various of pieces of Buddha statues
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Sorna Khakzad, UNESCO conservationist:
"For these we want conservation, not only to show the destruction and all these things, also to stabilize these two places for maybe, for maybe future restorations."
23. Moving shots of workers working on the field
24. Various of Ghulam Hussain and his brother working on their field
25. SOUNDBITE (Dari) Ghulam Hussain, Farmer:
"We are happy for the Buddha statues to be restored, more foreigners will come and people will benefit a lot, we will be happy."
26. SOUNDBITE (Dari) Ahmad Ali, Farmer:
"If they (Buddha statues) are restored and if there is security, people will find job opportunities and everybody is happy. If the money goes into the pockets of NGO's (Non Governmental Organizations) then the Pakistanis, Americans and others will benefit, and the poor people will not get anything. They (Buddha statues) should not be restored."
27. Mid of Buddha statue
28. Wide shot of Bamiyan city with Buddha statue
LEAD IN:
A world heritage site in Afghanistan, destroyed by the Taliban, is gradually being restored.
But the area is swamped with landmines.
For now, those clearing the mines need to double up as amateur archaeologists.
STORYLINE:
The remains of the giant Buddha statue - destroyed by the Taliban regime in 2001.
Bamiyan is a World Heritage site, and a key historical attraction in Afghanistan.
This sixth century citadel is called Shahr-i-Ghulghula, and shows the transition from Buddhist to Islamic cultures in Central Asia.
But there is a hidden danger here. Landmines are scattered all around the statue.
Shamsuddin Wassiq is one of them.

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