Deliberate Damage of Cultural Heritage in Conflict: The Bamiyan Buddhas

Deliberate damage to cultural heritage for symbolic purposes during times of conflict has a long history, but international frameworks for preventing it have been slow to develop.  The destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban in 2001 highlights some of the problems facing conservation of conflict damage, including the important meaning of the damage itself and the difficulty of creating general international laws that can conform to the case-by-case nature of heritage.