‘We’re going to destroy everything before we apply Shariah in this city’

Islamists rebels of Ansar Dine near Timbuktu. Photo: AFP

Islamist rebels say they will continue to destroy historic sites in Timbuktu before they implement strict Shariah law, as Mali’s government compared the destruction to “war crimes”.

Ansar Dine spokesman Sanda Abu Mohamed said that Islamists will continue the destruction they started on Saturday.

“We’re going to destroy everything before we apply Shariah in this city,” he said.

Part of a mosque in Timbuktu, which militants have threatened to destroy. Photo: AFP

Resident Moussa Maiga said the Islamists have expressed disapproval of what they think is worship of the tombs of the Muslim saints.

“They say that the population loves the saints like God,” he said.

But resident Bouya Ould Sidi Mohamed said the historic city has long had Muslim roots.

“Timbuktu was an Islamic city since the 12th century, and we know what the religion says about the saints’ tombs,” he said.

“Contrary to what the Islamists or the Wahabis of Ansar Dine say, here in Timbuktu, the people don’t love the saints like God, but just seek the saints’ blessings because they are our spiritual guides.”

Mali’s government condemned the destruction, which they say is akin to “war crimes”.

“The council of ministers has just approved, in principle, the referral to the International Criminal Court and a working group is working to this end,” the government said in a statement.

The UN cultural agency on Saturday called for an immediate halt to the destruction of three sacred Muslim tombs. Irina Bokova, who heads the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, cited in a statement Saturday reports the centuries-old mausoleums of Sidi Mahmoud, Sidi, Moctar and Alpha Moya had been destroyed.

On Thursday, UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, meeting in St Petersburg, Russia, placed the mausoleums of Muslim saints on its list of sites in danger at the request of Mali’s government.

Islamist fighters from the Ansar Dine group have declared that they now control the northern half of Mali after driving out an ethnic Tuareg separatist group. The rebel groups took advantage of a power vacuum created by a March coup in the capital to seize ground in the north.

The Islamists’ growing reach is more worrying news for the landlocked West African nation.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the attacks on the mausoleums “totally unjustified” and urged all sides to preserve Mali’s cultural heritage, according to a statement.