I hate to be the harbinger of atrocious things but I think the
destruction has already occurred.  This was from Sunday (March 11/01).

Larry Buhr
Univ. of Nevada, Reno



Giant Buddhas in Afghanistan destroyed by Taliban, aid workers say

KATHY GANNON

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - The Taliban religious militia has now
completely demolished two giant statues of Buddha hewn from a cliff face
in
central Afghanistan, international aid workers said Sunday, despite
desperate
pleas from abroad to spare the third- and fifth-century relics.

The destruction was ordered late last month by the Taliban, hard-line
Muslims who rule most of Afghanistan and say statues are idolatrous.
Despite the international outcry, the Taliban appeared Sunday to have
carried
out their plan.

Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil told UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan during a meeting Sunday in neighbouring Pakistan that

there was nothing left of the statues, according to an international aid
worker
who attended the talks.

The destruction was corroborated by Taliban officials in southern
Afghanistan and by an aid worker who said his information came from
Afghan witnesses in the area.

It has been impossible to verify the reports independently because the
Taliban
have refused to allow anyone in the Bamiyan Valley area, where the
statues
stood.

On Saturday, the Taliban had said the statues, measuring 52 metres and
37
metres, were 80 per cent destroyed.

Abdul Hai Muttmain, a spokesman for the Taliban's reclusive leader, told
The
Associated Press that delegations pleading for preservation were too
late: The
statues were almost gone.

"Everyone is coming now is too late. We have destroyed 80 per cent of
the
statues. There is only a small amount left and we will destroy that
soon,"
Muttmain said.

Upon his arrival in Pakistan on Saturday, Annan said he would convey the

world's outrage at the destruction. By Sunday, it appeared to be too
late.

Relations between the United Nations and the Taliban have never been
good,
and they have worsened with fresh sanctions imposed in January to press
for
the extradition of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden. The Taliban have

refused to hand him over.

Now, the outcry to save the two giant Buddhas has spread worldwide.

Predominantly Buddhist nations like Japan and Sri Lanka have made pleas.

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) sent a

special envoy from Paris, Pierre Lafrance, to try to get the Taliban to
rescind
their order.

The Taliban's Radio Shariat on Saturday said there would be no change to
the
order. The statues violate the tenets of Islam as laid out in the
Qur'an, the
Muslim holy book, the broadcast said.

Islamic nations also expressed their outrage at the destruction. Egypt
sent its
chief Muslim cleric Grand Mufti Nasr Farid Wasel to Afghanistan to
appeal
to the Taliban to change their order.

On Sunday, a Taliban official in Pakistan who spoke on condition of
anonymity said the Islamic world had simply waited too long.

© The Canadian Press, 2001