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Germany to seek UN resolution against Taliban
AFP (Berlin, March 5)



GERMAN FOREIGN minister Joschka Fischer has said that Germany will seek a UN Security Council resolution condemning the destruction of priceless statues in Afghanistan by the ruling Taliban militia.

Fischer said in a joint statement with visiting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that they were shocked by "the willing destruction of priceless cultural objects and the flouting of international agreements" by the islamic regime.

The two, who held talks in Frankfurt yesterday, called on the Taliban to "immediately halt destruction of Afghanistan's cultural heritage".

Taliban officials yesterday said that the country's ancient Bamiyan buddhas were on their way to being destroyed and ruled out any hope for their preservation.

In the face of outrage from countries across the world - including Muslim states - the regime said they were merely carrying out an Islamic ban on idols and statues, part of their efforts to create the world's purest Muslim state.

Meanwhile, Greece is considering whether to offer buy works of art in Afghanistan which are threatened with destruction by the country's ruling Taliban militia, the foreign ministry here said today.

"Given that many of the works of art are characteristic of the hellenic period," Greece is "considering whether to buy and transport the statues back to Greece," the ministry said in a statement.

 


Updated: 5-3-2001

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