UNESCO sends envoy to Kabul with statue plea

UNESCO sends envoy to Kabul with statue plea
REUTERS

MAR 3: The Paris-based UNESCO has led international condemnation this week of Taliban plans to obliterate art-work it considers un-Islamic, but its appeals for a reprieve for the antiquities have so far fallen on deaf ears.

UNESCO Director General Koichiro Matsuura said he had sent Pierre Lafrance, a former French Ambassador in Pakistan, to Kabul for urgent talks with the Taliban.

Matsuura said in a statement that he hoped the talks would "reverse this absurd action that the authorities in Kabul are engaged in".

Lafrance left on Friday for Pakistan and it was not clear when he would arrive in Afghanistan.

Taliban sources in Kabul said on Friday that mortars and cannon were being used to destroy two giant statues of Buddha in the Central Afghan town of Bamiyan.

Representatives from Arab nations at UNESCO issued a statement denouncing the Taliban move.

"The Arab group considers that the barbaric attitude of the Taliban represents a serious attack on the dignity of man in his spiritual and moral dimension, which should not in any way damage the image of Islam, its values of tolerance and its respect of all civilisations," the statement said.

"The Arab group demands that the Taliban immediately halt the massive destruction of these monuments," it added.

UNESCO said that after visiting Kabul, Lafrance would also hold talks with officials from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- the only three countries to have recognised the Taliban as legitimate rulers of Afghanistan.

It did not give any timetable for his meetings.