Author:
Publication: The Telegraph
Date: March 12, 2001
Afghanistan's Taliban rulers spurned
a direct request by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to stop destroying
historic statues and said it would destroy all statues it regards as idols.
Taliban foreign minister Wakil Ahmad
Muttawakil told a news conference Annan asked him "to stop this destruction"
at a meeting in Islamabad.
Annan called the order by Taliban
leader Mullah Mohammad Omar "lamentable" when he arrived at Islamabad yesterday
and said it had aroused "enormous international concern".
But Muttakawali told Annan "this
issue is totally an internal religious matter" and repeated Taliban's vow
to destroy all statues it regards as idolatrous.
Annan cited opposition from international
organisations to the destruction of the statues. A Taliban spokesman said
in Afganistan before the meeting that the demolition of two giant Buddhas
carved in cliffs more than 1,500 years ago near the central town of Bamiyan
was almost complete.
The decision to destroy them has
aroused worldwide criticism from Buddhists, moderate Muslims and foreign
governments which regard the statues as part of the world's cultural heritage.
"We do admit all these statues were
cultural heritage of Afghanistan," Muttawakil said. "But we will not leave
the part which is contrary to our belief."
Muttawakil dismissed opposition
from other Islamic countries and several top Islamic scholars, saying they
had issued no Islamic edict to save the statues and were only giving advice
"for the sake of reconciliation".
The Taliban ambassador in Pakistan
as saying Kabul could halt the destruction of statues if it was unanimously
ordered by a team of visiting Islamic scholars and Afghan religious scholars.
"If both sides issue a unanimous
Islamic fatwa (edict) saying that the destruction of statues is not proper,
we will accept it," ambassador Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef said. But Afghan
sources said it was unlikely the Taliban's hardline ulema, or scholars,
would agree with the scholars from the world's largest Muslim body, the
Organisation of Islamic Conference, who arrived in Kandahar today and begun
talks with the Taliban authorities.
