Destroying priceless art is vile and offensive – but it is not a war crime

As Ahmad al-Mahdi goes on trial for razing Timbuktu’s mausoleums, we should remember what The Hague is for: preventing the mass murder of humans

Should acts of cultural destruction that happen during conflict be classed as war crimes? That is the precedent being set by the current trial of Ahmad al-Mahdi at the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague. Al-Mahdi has pleaded guilty to leading a group that destroyed most of the architecturally beautiful, historically precious mausoleums in Timbuktu, Mali, when it was under Islamist rule in 2012.

It may seem a clear-cut case, a one-sided argument. Attacks on art and architecture have become a terrifyingly routine weapon in the hands of religious extremists. It is so easy to blow up a temple, to smash a statue. And these assaults on “idolatry” – as the extremists brand them – are not just upsetting for archaeologists. From the blowing up of Afghan Buddhas that eerily preceded the attack on the World Trade Center to the horrible confluence of vandalism and cruelty in Palmyra, it is clear that for those who psych themselves up to destroy great art, it is just a short step to killing people.

Related: Islamist pleads guilty at ICC to destroying Timbuktu mausoleums

Culture can be renewed, remade, reinvented. Human life cannot

Related: Palmyra must not be fixed. History would never forgive us

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