United Nations:
Secretary-General expresses
alarm concerning Taliban edict
(27 February 2001) The Secretary-General has learned with alarm of the edict issued yesterday by the Taliban supreme leader ordering the destruction of all statues and non-Islamic shrines in the country. This follows reports of the recent destruction of a number of precious items in the National Museum of Kabul. The General Assembly has repeatedly called on all Afghan parties to protect the cultural and historic relics and monuments of Afghanistan which are part of the common heritage of mankind. The Secretary-General appeals to the Taliban leadership to abide by their previous commitments to protect Afghanistan's cultural heritage in general, and the two great Buddhist sculptures in Bamiyan in particular.
UN envoy meets Afghanistan officials over statues
(March 4, 2001, AFP) An envoy from the United Nations, Mr. Pierre Lafrance arrived in the Taliban militia's southern bastion Kandahar today for urgent talks with top officials who have ordered the destruction of ancient Buddhist statues.
Mr Lafrance, special envoy for the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), meet with officials including Foreign Minister Mr. Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel who earlier said there was no way the Islamic Militia would reverse its order.
UNSC: Security Council condemns destruction of Buddha statues
(March 8, 2001, AP) UNITED NATIONS: The U.N. Security Council condemned the order by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to destroy pre-Islamic relics as an "incomprehensible and wanton" act of violence against the country's cultural heritage. Council members on Tuesday joined other U.N. bodies, governments, religious and cultural organisations in urging the Taliban to halt the destruction of an important part "of the world's cultural treasure."
The United Nations cultural
agency UNESCO denounced the Taliban
NEW YORK, March 1 (Reuters) The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO denounced the Taliban for smashing the priceless statues and called on Muslim nations to try to halt the destruction, which has inflicted new damage to the Taliban's already poor ties with most countries.
UN envoy urges Taliban not to destroy pre-Islamic statues
(1 March) An envoy of Secretary-General Kofi Annan today urged Taliban officials in Kabul to abandon their plans for the destruction of all pre-Islamic relics in Afghanistan.
Mr. Annan's Personal Representative, Francesc Vendrell, discussed the Taliban's recent edict calling for the destruction of all pre-Islamic statues and shrines with the group's so-called Foreign Minister, Muttawakil.
Voicing the Secretary-General's strong concern about the edict, Mr. Vendrell asked that the Taliban not carry it out. He also warned that if the edict is implemented, it would provoke international outrage.
Afghan statues
outcry grows; Taliban leader defiant
Monday, March 5, 2001
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Hindu hard-liners in India burned a copy of the Muslim holy book, the Koran, Monday as international outrage grew at the destruction by Afghanistan's Taliban rulers of historic statues in the name of Islam.
As Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar defended his destruction order, a German minister compared the attack on the statues to the book-burning purges of the Nazis and an Afghan news agency said Japan had warned the drought and war-ravaged nation aid could be hit.
Iran urged the Organization of Islamic Conference, the world's largest Islamic body, to take serious action to stop the Taliban, and Greece offered to buy statues left behind from the days of Alexander the Great's conquests in Asia.
More than 2,000 people turned out for a protest rally in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, where Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, was born more than 2,600 years ago.
Mainly Buddhist Thailand and predominantly Muslim Malaysia added their voices to a chorus of criticism. The European Union denounced the start of the destruction of statues as ``an act of cultural barbarism and religious intolerance.''
But a Kashmiri separatist group, based in Pakistan, expressed support for the Taliban stand.