Contemporary warfare implies not only bloodshed. It damages or destroys treasures of material and cultural history, stresses the statement. Their loss impoverishes the entire human race, in whatever part of the world those monuments might be. To prove the point, the ministry refers to a heinous outrage in Afghanistan's Bamian, 2001, which shook the world when the Taliban regime ordered to demolish unique Buddha statues of incomparable religious, artistic and historical value. Interethnic clashes in Kosovo last March left many old Eastern Christian churches in ruins. The blood-curdling list can go on and on, says the document.
Russia came through two world wars and a civil war, and so has firsthand knowledge of how destructive the loss of historical mementoes and religious shrines is to national identity and the public mood.
Russia is ready to do its bit as all interested nations elaborate a necessary international legal norm, reassures the statement.
