Taliban foreign minister, Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel, said Saturday he will meet United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan in Pakistan to defend the Afghan regime's destruction of ancient statues, reported AFP.
"I will tell him that what we are doing is an internal religious issue. It is not aimed at challenging the world," he said.
Mutawakel shrugged off the international appeals for the preservation of the historic statues, including two massive Buddha statues in central Bamiyan province which are among the great works of the ancient world.
"We would like to repeat that the decree is irreversible. It is a religious and internal issue," he said, adding that "work" was continuing on the country's pre-Islamic heritage, said AFP.
Annan will arrive in Islamabad Saturday on a two-day official visit during which he will hold talks with senior Pakistani officials, reported the Iranian News Agency (IRNA).
Talks will focus on “regional peace and stability, including Kashmir and Afghanistan,” a Pakistani official told the agency.
Taliban officials late Friday said almost a quarter of the two colossal Bamiyan Buddhas had been destroyed, in line with an edict issued last week to stop idolatry.
The Taliban have been attacking the figures, carved into sandstone cliffs more than 1,500 years ago when Afghanistan was a seat of Buddhism, with everything from tanks and rockets to dynamite.
Hundreds of other historic figures around the country are also believed to have been smashed but the damage is impossible to confirm as the militia has refused observers access.
"Work is underway but I do not know how many of them has been destroyed," Mutawakel said, speaking from the Taliban's seat of power in southern Kandahar.
Meanwhile, the United Nations General Assembly called Friday for an immediate end to the “demolition of the irreplaceable monuments and artifacts of Afghanistan's cultural heritage.”
In a resolution co-sponsored by over 90 countries that was adopted without a vote, the assembly strongly urged the Taliban to review their edict of 26 February, under which the destruction is taking place, a UN statement said.
The assembly also appealed to the Taliban to "abide by their previous commitments to protect Afghanistan's cultural heritage from all acts of vandalism, damage and theft."
The resolution called on UN member states to help safeguard the sculptures, including, if necessary, temporarily relocating or removing them from public view. It underscored that the destruction of the statues in Afghanistan, in particular of the unique Buddhist sculptures in Bamiyan, would be an "irreparable loss for humanity as a whole." – Albawaba.com
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