Taliban destruction of Buddhas confirmed

Despite international efforts and a plea by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to have the Taliban Islamic Movement refrain from destroying what it calls unIslamic icons, local reports have confirmed the destruction of “all movable statues” of the Buddhist faith and two giant Buddhas carved into a rockface in the Bamiyan valley. An aid worker told IRIN on Monday that the two giant statues had been completely destroyed. He confirmed eye-witness reports that the larger 53-metre statue had been blown up on Thursday and the smaller, 38-metre statue on Friday. According to local sources in Bamiyan Province, central Afghanistan, both statues were about 90 percent destroyed and demolition work was being carried out in a professional manner with high explosives brought in last week for the purpose. The three-day demolition was said to have been attended by Taliban Defence Minister Mullah Ubaidullah Akhund. “I did discuss the statues with the foreign minister and I walked away from the meeting not very encouraged,” Kofi Annan told reporters after a meeting with Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, on Sunday. “If they do carry out this decision, I think they will be doing themselves a great deal of disservice, and a disservice to Islam and Muslims,” Annan added. Speaking at the Taliban’s embassy in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad on Sunday, Muttawakil told the BBC that the decision had been “totally an internal religious matter” that had the support of the ordinary Afghan people. That contradicted reports from inside the country that many Afghans were saddened by this destruction of their cultural heritage. The Taliban’s spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, issued a fatwa (or religious edict) in late February ordering the destruction of all statues which were considered non-Islamic idols. The decision was met with international outcry and prompted numerous countries, notably Japan and Egypt, to send delegations to appeal for a halt to the destruction. The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC), a representative body of Muslims worldwide, also sent a delegation in an unsuccessful attempt to shift the Taliban position. Dr Khalil Ibrahim Said, the Permanent Representative of the OIC for Afghanistan, told IRIN on Monday that the Taliban decision to destroy the statues had been unfortunate. “The Taliban insist that it’s an internal matter but they cannot say that as Islam is an international religion whose followers are not necessarily all in Afghanistan,” he said. Said considered that the Taliban intransigence on the issue was poorly timed and unwise. “It’s very unfortunate that the Taliban are carrying out this destruction while looking for international recognition. If you want international recognition, you don’t give the impression that you are not cooperating with the views of the international community. They would have been wiser to have taken heed of various countries pleas [to halt],” he added. The OIC representative did not think that humanitarian assistance should be linked to the demolition of the statues. “This is entirely down to the individual views of donor countries,” he said, referring to future funding for Afghanistan from the international community. However, Annan has expressed concern that the destruction of Afghanistan’s pre-Islamic heritage might harm the relief effort for a country ravaged by the effects of war and drought. He told reporters on Sunday that demolition would not help fundraising appeals or aid for the Afghan people, although no country had categorically refused to give aid. On 9 March, 90 countries responded to Mullah Omar’s fatwa by co-sponsoring a UN General Assembly resolution that strongly urged the Taliban to halt the destruction of statues and shrines in the country. Speakers stressed that the artifacts being destroyed in Afghanistan belonged to the common heritage of humankind. “Their destruction was an act of intolerance that was contrary to the real spirit of Islam,” a press release quoted them as saying. Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil told the BBC on Sunday that the statues had not been destroyed in revenge for Afghanistan’s international isolation. “There is no link between this or any political issue,” he said. “It is our internal issue and has no political justification.”