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Taliban Rejects Kofi Annan on Statue Issue
Afghan Taliban Foreign Minister Maulvi Wakil Ahmad Mutawakil Sunday rejected UN Secretary General Kofi Annan's plea to stop destruction of ancient Buddhist statues, emphasizing that the action was started after thorough deliberations in light of the edict according to the Islamic law.
Mutawakil expressed these views in a press conference at Afghan Embassy in Islamabad after meeting with Secretary General United Nations Kofi Annan on Sunday.
"This is totally an internal issue of Afghanistan which has no link with the sanctions ...the exercise cannot be stopped," he said.
Responding to a question, Mutawakil said that statues destruction exercise was undergoing as planned and the process would be completed.
On his talks with Afghan Foreign Minister, Kofi Annan told another press conference that he did discuss the issue of Buddhist statues with Mutawakil, but he was told the statues had been destroyed.
"The destruction of the two Bamiyan statues had begun but Mutawakil could not tell me the stage of destruction," Annan said.
Describing it as "lamentable decision," Annan said, Taliban had "done a great deal of disservice" to the Muslims by destroying the statues, adding there was hardly any Islamic scholars who had supported Taliban's decision to smash the statues.
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