World

Taliban Trashes Ancient Statues

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 1, 2001 / 4:13 PM EST / CBS

Using everything from tanks to rocket launchers, the radical ruling Taliban movement began smashing all statues from Afghanistan's rich cultural past Thursday, defying international appeals to save the ancient artifacts.

Taliban Information and Culture Minister Mullah Qudratullah Jamal said centers where the campaign had been unleashed included Bamiyan province — site of two soaring statues of the Buddha — 175 feet and 120 feet tall — hewn from a solid cliff that are the most famous relics of Afghanistan's history.

"All statues will be destroyed," he told reporters in the capital Kabul. "Whatever means of destruction are needed to demolish the statues will be used."

The Edict

Text issued by the office of Afghanistan's supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar ordering the destruction of all statues in the country:

"In view of the fatwa (religious edict) of prominent Afghan scholars and the verdict of the Afghan Supreme Court it has been decided to break down all statues/idols present in different parts of the country.

This is because these idols have been gods of the infidels, who worshipped them, and these are respected even now and perhaps maybe turned into gods again.

The real God is only Allah, and all other false gods should be removed."

(AP)

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"The work began early during the day. All of the statues are to be smashed. This also covers the idols in Bamiyan," he said.

The Taliban !51; a fundamentalist movement that regards all human likenesses of divinity to be un-Islamic — rejected a last-minute U.N. appeal when its Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil told an envoy Thursday the movement would complete the destruction of the statues it regards as un-Islamic.

There are an estimated 6,000 pieces of Buddhist art in the Kabul Museum, said Brigitte Neubacher, spokeswoman for the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan's Cultural Heritage in neighboring Pakistan.

"The abandoned relics are not our pride," the official Bakhtar news agency quoted Muttawakil as telling U.N. special envoy for Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell, who arrived in Kabul with an appeal from U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"Destroying them would not mean that the freedom of the minorities would cease," Muttawakil said.

There are no Buddhists livin in Afghanistan. Other than Muslims there are only Hindus and Sikhs and Muttawakil promised their temples would be protected. There also is one elderly Jewish rabbi, who stays in Kabul to protect a synagogue, which is a small house in the center of the city.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press news service later quoted Jamal as saying statues had been destroyed at museums in Kabul, the southern city of Ghazni, the western city of Herat and at Farm Hadda near the main eastern town of Jalalabad.

The Taliban steadily has conquered most of Afghanistan in recent years, and now controls its cities and highways.

Heavily criticized for its restrictions on women and for its public executions, the Taliban is recognized by only three states: Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The destruction of artifacts has inflicted new damage to the Taliban's already-poor ties with most countries.

International alarm was first sparked Monday, when Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar ordered the smashing of all statues, including the two famous Buddhas that soar 125 feet and 174 feet above Bamiyan.

The United Nations cultural agency UNESCO appealed directly to the Taliban to reverse its decision and also urged Muslim nations around the world to halt the destruction.

Afghanistan's Poppy Problem

Afghanistan will remain on a black-list of countries who don't do enough to fight the drug trade, the United States said Thursday.

In its annual statement on whether countries' deserve certification for their anti-drug efforts — and therefore U.S. aid — the White House reported a sharp increase in heroin production worldwide, with more than half of the opium produced coming from Afghanistan.

The report said opium poppy had been virtually wiped out in Pakistan but it had leapt 25 percent in Afghanistan.

The report said preliminary reports indicated the Taliban had effected a ban on production in 2000-2001 growing season, but it said other reports indicated there was sufficient stockpile from previous years "to meet demand easily."

Click here to read the full report.

(Reuters, AP)

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Russia, Germany, India, Pakistan, the United States and the European Union condemned thdestruction and appealed to the Taliban to think again.

Buddhist countries such as Thailand and Sri Lanka also have expressed alarm at the Taliban's focus on eradicating reminders of the centuries before Islam when Afghanistan was a center of Buddhist learning and pilgrimage.

Egyptian Muslim intellectual Fahmi Howeidy said the Taliban edict ran contrary to Islam.

"Islam respects other cultures even if they include rituals that are against Islamic law," Howeidy said.

Muslim Pakistan, one of Taliban's very few foreign supporters, joined the international chorus Thursday.

"Pakistan attaches great importance to and supports the preservation of the world's historical, cultural and religious heritage," the foreign ministry said.

U.S. State Department spokesman Philip T. Reeker Tuesday said Washington was "distressed and baffled" by the Taliban's announcement.

"Their action directly contradicts one of Islam's basic tenets — tolerance for other religions," Reeker said.

Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil on Wednesday said the Islamic militia was unmoved by international concern.

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