Fate of Afghan statues unknown

The towering Bamiyan Buddhas are considered world treasures

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- The fate of two massive historic Buddha statues in Afghanistan was unclear on Sunday.

"We have not begun destroying them yet, but we have prepared for it and that can take place any time," a Taleban source told Reuters.

The Taleban have branded numerous statues in Afghanistan as un-Islamic and ordered their destruction, despite an international outcry over the decision

Other Taleban officials in the Afghan capital Kabul said piece-by-piece demolition of the soaring statues of Buddha in Bamiyan -- the tallest in the world and Afghanistan's best-known archaeological treasures -- was already under way.

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Afghan statues

There was no immediate way of independently confirming the fate of the two statues because Bamiyan in central Afghanistan is about a two-day drive from Kabul and the Taleban were not allowing any observers to go to the area.

A United Nations envoy said Sunday he was "not very optimistic" the country's pre-Islamic relics would be saved.

The Taleban, the fundamentalist Muslim movement that governs most of Afghanistan, has said it will destroy most of the country's ancient statuary as graven images offensive to Islam. That order could include two massive sandstone Buddhas at Bamiyan, believed to date from the Third Century.

Pierre Lafrance, a representative of the U.N. cultural agency UNESCO, described his two hours of talks with Taleban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil as "very intensive."

"I made a lot of objections and remarks and reminded my interlocutor that Buddhist tradition has nothing to do with the worshipping of idols," Lafrance said. "I also reminded him that Buddha himself was considering himself as nothing but a prophet."

The Taleban have been fighting a civil war

A senior Taleban official said Saturday that troops had used artillery and hand tools to begin demolishing the Buddhas at Bamiyan, in central Afghanistan. But the Taleban have not allowed reporters to the site, and no independent confirmation of the claim was available.

On Sunday, Muttawakil "confirmed that the destruction has started in museums, especially in small museums," Lafrance said.

"As far as Bamiyan was concerned, he couldn't really confirm that the destruction was started. But yesterday I received very conflicting reports. Reliable sources gave two opposite versions."

Lafrance said he still hopes to meet directly with Taleban supreme leader Mullah Mohammed Omar after this week's Muslim holiday marking the time of the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage to Mecca.

Most of Afghanistan is in ruins

The sandstone Buddhas at Bamiyan are carved into a cliff, looming 53 and 36 meters (174 and 120 feet) high over the surrounding plain. They are considered unique because of their blend of both Indian and Greek influences, said Mounir Bouchenaki, an Algerian-born archaeologist and a top UNESCO world heritage official.

The area was part of the "Silk Road" linking India and China with Europe, and home to a series of Buddhist monasteries from the Second to Sixth centuries, before the rise of Islam.

The Taleban's edict calling for the destruction of images of the human form stems from an austere interpretation of Islam that many other Muslim countries reject.

The Taleban has rejected offers from Iran and other countries to safeguard or buy the country's historic relics, with Muttawakil saying Sunday that Afghanistan "is not in the business of selling its cultural or architectural heritages."

"All the Arab countries and all Islamic countries consider that this has nothing to do with Islam," Bouchenaki said. "You know in our countries, we have a series of sites and monuments belonging to pre-Islamic cultures, and they are well-kept."

Other countries have condemned the Taleban's edict as embarrassing to Islam. India called it an act of "medieval barbarism," and even Afghanistan's closest ally, Pakistan, called on the Taleban to rescind the order.

Since coming to power in 1996, after nearly two decades of civil war and Soviet occupation, the Taleban has tried to turn Afghanistan into a pure Islamic society. The rulers have imposed severe restrictions on women, banned television and photography, and carried out public executions and amputations as punishments for criminals.

Only three countries, including Pakistan, recognize the Taleban as Afghanistan's rightful government. The Taleban is still battling the remnants of Afghanistan's former government in the northern mountains.

The prolonged conflict and the worst drought in 30 years have uprooted hundreds of thousands of Afghans, and the United Nations has reported that hundreds of Afghans have died of cold and hunger.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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