KATMANDU: A historic 19th-century tower collapsed in the heart of Katmandu’s old quarter after an earthquake on Saturday, with at least a dozen bodies seen pulled from the rubble and fears of scores still trapped.
The nine-story Dharhara tower is a major tourist attraction in Durbar Square at the heart of Katmandu’s historic old city where kings were once crowned, with its eighth-floor balcony providing panoramic views of the Katmandu valley.
The tower — which was white, topped with a bronze minaret and contained a spiral staircase of over 200 steps — was reduced to just its base when the 7.8-magnitude quake struck at lunchtime.
Rescue workers were seen dragging bodies from the rubble and TV footage showed chaotic scenes at the site, as people desperately tried to dig through piles of bricks and dust with their bare hands.
Katmandu police spokesman Dinesh Acharya said rescuers were frantically trying to “bring everyone out to safety.”
“Our team is still deployed in Dharara to rescue people. However, we do not know how many are still trapped,” he told AFP.
People took to social media to express their dismay at the historic site’s collapse.
“Devastating to see Dharhara (Bhimsen Tower) collapsed,” user Prabir Bhatt said on Twitter.
“The historic #Dharhara tower in #Nepal destroyed by the #Earthquake. Prayers!” wrote Rahul Sharma.
Saturday was not the first time the 50.5-meter-high tower — built by Nepal’s then prime minister for the queen in 1832 — has been hit by an earthquake.
Much of Durbar Square, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the social and cultural heart of the city, had to be rebuilt after a huge quake in 1934.
The tower collapsed in that quake and was rebuilt two stories lower than the original.
The tower was a popular attraction, with tourists charged a small fee to climb the steps to the viewing deck. A small shrine to the Hindu god Shiva was located at the top.
The Wikipedia page for the tower was updated within minutes after the earthquake hit, with the news of its collapse.
Historic Katmandu tower collapses in quake
Historic Katmandu tower collapses in quake
Culture being strangled by Kosovo’s political crisis
- Cultural institutions have been among the hardest-hit sectors, as international funding dried up and local decisions were stalled by the parliamentary crisis
PRIZREN: Kosovo’s oldest cinema has been dark and silent for years as the famous theater slowly disintegrates under a leaky roof.
Signs warn passers-by in the historic city of Prizren that parts of the Lumbardhi’s crumbling facade could fall while it waits for its long-promised refurbishment.
“The city deserves to have the cinema renovated and preserved. Only junkies gathering there benefit from it now,” nextdoor neighbor butcher Arsim Futko, 62, told AFP.
For seven years, it waited for a European Union-funded revamp, only for the money to be suddenly withdrawn with little explanation.
Now it awaits similar repairs promised by the national government that has since been paralyzed by inconclusive elections in February.
And it is anyone’s guess whether the new government that will come out of Sunday’s snap election will keep the promise.
- ‘Collateral damage’ -
Cinema director Ares Shporta said the cinema has become “collateral damage” in a broader geopolitical game after the EU hit his country with sanctions in 2023.
The delayed repairs “affected our morale, it affected our lives, it affected the trust of the community in us,” Shporta said.
Brussels slapped Kosovo with sanctions over heightened tensions between the government and the ethnic Serb minority that live in parts of the country as Pristina pushed to exert more control over areas still tightly linked to Belgrade.
Cultural institutions have been among the hardest-hit sectors, as international funding dried up and local decisions were stalled by the parliamentary crisis.
According to an analysis by the Kosovo think tank, the GAP Institute for Advanced Studies, sanctions have resulted in around 613 million euros ($719 million) being suspended or paused, with the cultural sector taking a hit of 15-million-euro hit.
- ‘Ground zero’ -
With political stalemate threatening to drag on into another year, there are warnings that further funding from abroad could also be in jeopardy.
Since February’s election when outgoing premier Albin Kurti topped the polls but failed to win a majority, his caretaker government has been deadlocked with opposition lawmakers.
Months of delays, spent mostly without a parliament, meant little legislative work could be done.
Ahead of the snap election on Sunday, the government said that more than 200 million euros ($235 million) will be lost forever due to a failure to ratify international agreements.
Once the top beneficiary of the EU Growth Plan in the Balkans, Europe’s youngest country now trails most of its neighbors, the NGO Group for Legal and Political Studies’ executive director Njomza Arifi told AFP.
“While some of the countries in the region have already received the second tranches, Kosovo still remains at ground zero.”
Although there have been some enthusiastic signs of easing a half of EU sanctions by January, Kurti’s continued push against Serbian institutions and influence in the country’s north continues to draw criticism from both Washington and Brussels.
- ‘On the edge’ -
Across the river from the Lumbardhi, the funding cuts have also been felt at Dokufest, a documentary and short film festival that draws people to the region.
“The festival has had to make staff cuts. Unfortunately, there is a risk of further cuts if things don’t change,” Dokufest artistic director Veton Nurkollari said.
“Fortunately, we don’t depend on just one source because we could end up in a situation where, when the tap is turned off, everything is turned off.”
He said that many in the cultural sector were desperate for the upcoming government to get the sanctions lifted by ratification of the agreements that would allow EU funds to flow again.
“Kosovo is the only one left on the edge and without these funds.”
