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Afghan Talibans Warned of Consequences of Destroying Buddhist Relics
France warned Thursday the Taliban authorities in Kabul, Afghanistan, against the consequences from destroying the Buddhist and other historical and cultural relics in the country.
"It is not through such behaviors that Taliban can get closer to the international community," said Bernard Valero, the assistant spokesman of the French Foreign Ministry.
The spokesman also said that as long as the Taliban does not change its behavior in terms of terrorism, drug trafficking, human rights, in particular the rights of women, and its militant policy in the civil war which has devastated most of the country, the international community and public opinion will remain "hostile" toward it.
The Taliban Islamic authorities have ordered the destruction of all the statues considered "anti-Islamic."
Agence France-Presse quoted the Taliban minister of information and culture, Quudratullah Jamal, as saying that the destruction of the statues begun Thursday morning.
The statues being destroyed are mostly invaluable master-pieces of Buddhist culture which prospered in Afghanistan before the arrival of Islam.
They include the giant Buddha sculptures on the cliff of Bamiyan, one of which is 55 meters high and the largest in the world.
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