UNESCO special envoy Pierre Lafrance said Wednesday he would return to Afghanistan this week in a second bid to save the country's ancient pre-Islamic statues, but he was not hopeful, according to AFP.
He said some circles within the hard-line Islamic militia had let their emotions overtake reason following Taliban Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar's edict last week ordering the destruction of all statues.
"I would not say that I feel hopeful but there is room for more attempts at calming down the situation ... I hope that a more reasoned approach will prevail," he told AFP.
He said militia officials had been overly anxious to announce the destruction of the two massive Buddha figures in central Bamiyan province, but reliable reports indicated they had not been badly damaged, the agency added.
"The only thing I know is that some rockets have been fired at the (Bamiyan) statues and apparently some smaller statues in museums in Kabul and Herat have been, if not smashed, severely broken," he told AFP.
The special representative of the UN's culture and education branch met top officials in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar on Sunday and the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan on Wednesday.
"Contacts are continuing and new consultations are taking place among theologians in Afghanistan" but the Taliban have already destroyed small statues in the museums of the towns of Ghazni, Jalalabad and Heart, he said in a statement sent to the Security Council.
UNESCO, said the UN online news service, has created a special bank account for the cultural heritage of Afghanistan to be used for emergency funding of any measure that may help safeguard the country's pre-Islamic heritage.
The funds can also go to long-term efforts to preserve both pre-Islamic and Islamic cultural heritage in Afghanistan.
Mullah Omar last week issued an edict ordering his followers to smash statues throughout the country to prevent idolatry, provoking an international outcry including protests from Islamic states such as Pakistan.
But the Taliban, who have imposed a unique and strict form of Islamic Sharia law in the 90 percent of Afghanistan under their control, have been unmoved by the international outrage.
"I would like to ask the world Muslims not to harmonize their voices with those of non-believers," Omar said Monday, adding that he saw it as a "matter of pride" to rid Afghanistan of statues.
Militia officials have said the Bamiyan Buddhas are being destroyed with everything from tanks to dynamite, but the province has been sealed to outsiders and their claims are impossible to verify, AFP said.
The two colossal Buddhas, including the largest standing Buddha in the world, were carved into sandstone cliffs near the provincial capital between the second and fifth centuries AD.
US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Tuesday called the destruction "a tragedy" and "a crime against humankind."
The UN Security Council also condemned the Taliban's February 26 edict, which had led to "incomprehensible and wanton acts of violence on the cultural heritage of Afghanistan," said the UN’s news service.
In another development the Security Council voiced its grave concern Tuesday over the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, where people are facing the worst drought in a generation, said the news service.
Following a briefing by United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator Kenzo Oshima, the Council deplored the ongoing civil war in Afghanistan and the absence of effective government,
Council President, Ambassador Volodymy Kuchynsky of Ukraine said in a statement to the press that members called on the Afghan parties, especially the Taliban "to guarantee the secure and uninterrupted supply of humanitarian aid."
Kuchynsky said the Council was also briefed on deliberate killings of civilians in Hazarajat in central Afghanistan. The Council welcomed consultations between the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Afghanistan on how an international independent investigation might be carried out at the earliest possible time, and urged the Taliban to conduct a thorough investigation, according to the news service – Albawaba.com
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