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All we are breaking are stones: Taliban

All we are breaking are stones: Taliban

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)
 


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