TEMPO.CO, Magelang - The Indonesian government has earmarked US$400,000 to finance cooperation program in the cultural sector with Afghanistan.

"Indonesia is a donator for this program," Masanori Nagaoka, head of culture unit at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) office in Afghanistan said at the Borobudur Conservation Center, Central Java, on Wednesday, May 27, 2015.

The program will be facilitated by the UNESCO, who will hold a cultural heritage exhibition for the two countries in Borobudur in December this year.

"We are currently holding an international campaign to help with Bamiyan conservation," Mr. Nagaoka added.

Afghanistan's Bamiyan Buddhas are one of the world's cultural heritages. Omara Khan Massoudi, head of Afghanistan's National Museum, said that his country's civilization can be traced to the pre-historic era. Today, there are about 1,200 endangered sites due to civil wars over the last three decades.

"It's a huge conservational work," Massoudi said.

Massoudi also presented images of damaged museum building as a result of a war that broke out in 1993. Massoudi explained that the war had destroyed 40,000 collections of the museum.

"Afghanistan needs help from the international community," Massoudi said.

The cooperation between the two countries had begun since a meeting between President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and President Hamid Karzai on the sidelines of the Democracy Forum held in Bali in 2011. A year later, Indonesian Education and Culture Minister Muhammad Nuh and Afghan Information and Culture Minister Sayed Makhdoom Raheen signed a cooperation agreement.

ANANG ZAKARIA