Author:
Publication: The Times of India
(Web Edition)
Date: February 27, 2001
The leader of the Taliban Islamic
militia in Afghanistan on Tuesday shrugged off international condemnation
of his order to destroy ancient Buddhist statues, saying "all we are breaking
are stones."
The massive Buddhas, carved into
a sandstone cliff near the provincial capital Bamiyan, stand 50 meters
and 34.5 meters tall respectively and date back to the second century AD.
Previously protected by hordes of
pilgrims and monks who lived in nearby caves, the statues are now only
visited by children who climb all over them.
When they were built, Afghanistan
was one of the most cosmopolitan regions in the world, a melting pot of
merchants, travellers and artists from China and India, central Asia and
the Roman Empire.
Mulla Mohammad Omar told the Pakistan-based
Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) that he had issued his order to destroy all
statues in Afghanistan, including those from the country's rich pre-Islamic
history, in line with "Islamic" beliefs.
"According to Islam, I don't worry
about anything. My job is the implementation of Islamic order," he said
from the fundamentalist militia's stronghold in southern Kandahar.
"The breaking of statues is an Islamic
order and I have given this decision in the light of a fatwa of the ulema
(clerics) and the Supreme Court of Afghanistan. Islamic Law is the only
law acceptable to me."
The order, announced late on Monday
on the official Taliban radio, was met with shock from Tokyo to Paris,
where UNESCO demanded the Taliban "halt the destruction of (Afghanistan's)
cultural heritage."
The Taliban's Radio Shariat said
the ministry of information and culture and the religious police would
carry out the destruction.
"Only Allah, the Almighty, deserves
to be worshipped, not anyone or anything else," Mulla Omar's decree said.
Afghanistan, a Buddhist centre before
Islamic conquerors invaded around 1,400 years ago, is famous for the two
massive and ancient Buddha statues. They are believed to be among the tallest
standing Buddhas in the world. Museums around the country host smaller
but equally important Buddhist figures and other priceless statues.
Before their faces were lost to
the elements and Taliban vandalism, the statues wore the same serene smiles
of the much later Buddhas in the far East, including Thailand, but their
classical features and Hellenistic Greek robes represented their unique
place not just in the history of Afghanistan, but of the world in general.
In Tokyo, Hokkaido University's
professor emeritus of Buddhism Kotatsu Fujita said: "I cannot believe the
Taliban will destroy the big Buddhas."
"Even though the statues are in
Afghanistan, they are really world heritage sites now. I strongly doubt
the Taliban's understandings of cultural heritage."
All Japan Buddhist Association secretary
general Kijo Nishimura said the destruction "must be avoided as much as
possible under any circumstances."
"Once you destroy something, you
can never get it back. We have an important responsibility to leave these
statues to our descendants," he said.
Omar said Afghan history was secondary
to the history of Islam. "Whoever thinks this is harmful to the history
of Afghanistan then I tell them they must first see the history if Islam,"
Omar told the Pakistan-based AIP.
"Some people believe in these statues
and pray to them ... If people say these are not our beliefs but only part
of the history of Afghanistan, then all we are breaking are stones."
The Sri Lankan government also expressed
"grave concern" at the order. "If true, this is a very serious matter and
we are gravely concerned," said government spokesman Ariya Rubasinghe.
In deeply Buddhist Thailand, Foreign
Ministry spokesman Pradap Pibulsonggram said the loss of the Bamiyan Buddhas
would be a "loss to humanity."
"It is their loss. I hope they could
rethink their decision. It's a loss to humanity," Pradap said.
"It's the loss of Afghanistan to
destroy these (Buddhas). One day when they resolve their problems, they'll
want to attract tourism. This would help them."
The decree was issued as a team
of western diplomats visited the Afghan capital, Kabul, to check reports
that Taliban hardliners had vandalised ancient statues in the national
museum.
The Pakistan-based envoys from Greece,
Italy and France left on Tuesday morning, saying only they were "very sad."
The Taliban, or movement of religious
students, seized Kabul in 1996 and have imposed a puritanical mix of Pashtun
tribal and Sharia law in a bid to create their idea of a true Mohammedan
state.
Their regime is recognised only
by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and is not represented
at the United Nations nor the Organisation of the Islamic Conference. (AFP)
