Despite Outcry, Taliban Begins Destroying Statues

Defying an international outcry, Taliban soldiers on Thursday began destroying all statues in Afghanistan--even targeting two soaring, ancient statues of Buddha carved into the face of a mountain.

The ruling Islamic militia said they sought to purge the nation of idolatrous images, but their closest ally, Pakistan, said the action could be a backlash against Afghanistan’s international isolation, including U.N. sanctions.

Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider said that the Taliban’s order “may have been an act of defiance brought on by the isolation they feel.”

As troops fanned out with everything from rocket launchers to tanks, cultural leaders worldwide expressed horror.

The head of UNESCO asked other Islamic nations to pressure the Taliban to stop, while the director of the Metropolitan Museum in New York pleaded with Afghan officials to give--or sell--the artifacts to foreign museums.

“In Afghanistan, they are destroying statues that the entire world considers to be masterpieces,” UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said. “This iconoclastic determination shocks me.”

“All officials, including the Ministry of Vice and Virtue, have been given the go-ahead to destroy the statues,” Taliban Information Minister Qadratullah Jamal said. “The destruction work will be done by any means available to them.”

It was impossible to confirm what had been destroyed so far--particularly whether they had begun demolishing the two huge Buddha statues carved into a cliff in Bamian. One of the statues is 175 feet high and dates to the 5th century; the other is 120 feet tall and dates to the 3rd century.

The road to Bamian was blocked by snow Thursday. There are soldiers in Bamian, but journalists have not been allowed to go there. The Taliban also refused to let reporters inside the Kabul museum, repository for thousands of Buddhist antiquities.

The Taliban’s supreme leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, ordered the destruction Monday, saying such images were contrary to Islam.

“These idols have been gods of the infidels, who worshiped them, and these are respected even now and perhaps may be turned into gods again,” his edict said.