File spoon-archives/postcolonial.archive/postcolonial_2001/postcolonial.0111, message 233


Date: Sat, 24 Nov 2001 17:57:13 +1100
From: saeed urrehman <saeed.urrehman-AT-anu.edu.au>
Subject: plain hunger


They ate the zoo, fought statues
THE birds at Kabul Zoo have mostly been eaten, so have the goats. And 
goldfish that graced the entrance were poisoned years ago. Near-by, a 
monkey, beaten through the bars by children, huddles in a corner. ‘‘It’s 
hard to care for them when you have no money,’’ said Sherago, zoo deputy 
director.

The West is just beginning to size up the task of rebuilding Afghanistan. 
And the most telling evidence of the country’s collapse is the violation of 
the grace and civility cherished by most modern societies. Kabul’s National 
Museum, famous for its manuscripts, miniatures and baubles of royal 
families, has been looted at least six times in the past 10 years, curators 
say. The Taliban put an end to the looting but smashed a collection of 
2,000-year-old figurines after ruling they were blasphemous.

The museum was looted again last week, when the Taliban were pushed out of 
Kabul — bandits backed a pickup truck to the front door and made off with 
antique guns. The remaining exhibits are a huge stone door and a stone 
cauldron, each half a metric ton heavy.
Kabul’s zoo is as painful a reminder of the city in better days. The zoo 
main annexe’s second floor held a panoramic taxidermy exhibit. Its only 
elephant perished when Pashtun warlord Hekmatyar launched a rocket attack 
on Kabul.

Sherago says soldiers stopping by for culinary pleasures have been the 
biggest scourge. They roasted ducks and ostriches, then gobbled up sheep 
and mountain goats. ‘‘They ate everything that was tasty.’’ Zamir, a former 
mujahedeen with Tajik general Massoud, said he helped eat the zoo’s 
American buffalo. ‘‘Only soldiers were here then, so you were allowed to 
eat anything,’’ he said. ‘‘It wasn’t people were hungry. It was just more 
interesting to eat there.’’
— Alan Cullison, Kabul (Reuters)



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