[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 915 Introduced in House (IH)]






109th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 915

     To authorize the President to take certain actions to protect 
        archaeological or ethnological materials of Afghanistan.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 17, 2005

 Mr. English of Pennsylvania (for himself, Ms. Hart, Mr. McGovern, Mr. 
 McDermott, Mr. Holden, and Mr. Payne) introduced the following bill; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Ways and Means

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To authorize the President to take certain actions to protect 
        archaeological or ethnological materials of Afghanistan.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Cultural Conservation of the 
Crossroads of Civilization Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds as follows:
            (1) Afghanistan enjoys a geographical position that made it 
        a crossroads of civilizations. Its tumultuous history can be 
        traced back as early as the 4th millennium B.C. and, as a 
        result, it is a living tapestry of ethnic and linguistic 
        cultures. Historically as well as artistically, it is a major 
        contributor to the world community.
            (2) Afghanistan, flanked by Central, West, and South Asia, 
        has seen waves of migrating peoples pass through what has been 
        referred to as the roundabout of the ancient world.
            (3) Archaeologists have identified evidence of Stone Age 
        technology and a 20,000-year-old sculpture head in Aq Kupruk.
            (4) The earliest settlers in Afghanistan, who migrated from 
        northern territories approximately 50,000 years ago, lived as 
        individual hunters in the caves of the northern Hindu Kush 
        mountains.
            (5) Evidence has been uncovered at the foothills of the 
        Hindu Kush Mountains and Darra-e Dadil (near Darra-e Suf), 
        Hazara Sum (near Aibak), and Qara Kamar (near Khulm) indicating 
        that North Afghanistan was home to the earliest domestic plants 
        and animals.
            (6) The Khyber Pass, a 33-mile passage through the Hindu 
        Kush mountain range and dating back to 326 B.C., connects the 
        northern frontier of Pakistan with Afghanistan.
            (7) During the 4th century B.C., Alexander the Great 
        defeated Darius III. Later on, the last Achaemenid ruler took 
        control of Afghanistan and introduced to the region Hellenistic 
        civilizations as well as new coins and artistic styles.
            (8) Alexander the Great and his army marched through the 
        Kunar Valley to reach the plains of India. The Aryan, Persian, 
        and Greek armies and the Scythian, White Huns, Seljuk, Tartar, 
        Mongol, Turk, Moghol, and Durrani armies made successful 
        inroads into territories beyond the Peshawar Valley and 
        Hindukosh Valleys.
            (9) Graeco-Buddhist Gandharan culture reached its height 
        during the Kushan Empire of Afghanistan.
            (10) During the Kushan Empire, under King Kanishka, Buddha 
        was for the first time represented with a human face. Centuries 
        later, the world's largest standing Buddha statues, between 
        120-175 feet tall, were carved into the Great Cliff of Bamiyan.
            (11) The Silk Road passed through Afghanistan, bringing 
        Roman glass and Chinese lacquer ware.
            (12) In 962, the rise of the Ghaznavid Dynasty ushered in 
        the Islamic era and gave Afghanistan a permanent political and 
        cultural role in Islamic civilization.
            (13) In 1219, Changiz (Genghis) Khan invaded Bukhara to 
        avenge the looting of his caravan. Changiz eventually defeated 
        Khwarazn Shah and proceeded through Afghanistan in his conquest 
        of Asia.
            (14) Most archaeological material excavated in Afghanistan 
        during the 20th century was housed in the National Museum in 
        Kabul or in regional museums.
            (15) The Archaeological Institute of America has published 
        articles listing thousands of artifacts that are among the 
        stolen or imperiled treasures of the National Museum in Kabul.
            (16) The nation of Afghanistan has endured a raping and 
        pillage of its cultural property over the past two decades, 
        leading Abdul Wasey Feroozi, former director of the National 
        Archaeological Institute in Kabul, to state, ``The catastrophe 
        of war annihilated seventy years of our hard work and 
        accomplishments. In the period from 1992 to 1994 . . . over 70 
        percent of the Kabul National Museum was burned and damaged and 
        100 percent of the objects were stolen or vandalized. Illegal 
        excavations and extensive clandestine digging started at most 
        historical sites, and thousands of valuable objects were 
        transported to other countries, notably through Pakistan, to 
        the international markets.''.
            (17) It should be recognized that the cultural heritage of 
        Afghanistan is at extreme peril and this legislation is a 
        result of a profound concern for the damage to Afghan 
        antiquities, sites, monuments, and cultural institutions.

SEC. 3. EMERGENCY IMPLEMENTATION OF IMPORT RESTRICTIONS.

    (a) Authority.--The President may exercise the authority the 
President has under section 304 of the Convention on Cultural Property 
Implementation Act (19 U.S.C. 2603) with respect to any archaeological 
or ethnological material of Afghanistan as if Afghanistan were a State 
Party under that Act, except that, in exercising such authority, 
subsection (c) of such section shall not apply.
    (b) Definition.--In this section, the term ``archaeological or 
ethnological material of Afghanistan'' means cultural property of 
Afghanistan and other items of archaeological, historical, cultural, 
rare scientific, or religious importance (including coins, manuscripts, 
and statuary artifacts) illegally removed, after the date of the 
enactment of this Act, from the National Museum in Kabul or other 
locations, including archaeological sites, in Afghanistan.

SEC. 4. TERMINATION OF AUTHORITY.

    The authority of the President under section 3 shall terminate upon 
the earlier of--
            (1) the date that is 5 years after the date on which the 
        President certifies to the Congress that normalization of 
        relations between the United States and the Government of 
        Afghanistan has been established; or
            (2) September 30, 2010.
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