Afghan Reaction
The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan
Statement by the Institute for Afghan Studies
When
Ants Grow Wing, Dr. Roashan's Country Corner column
Nancy Dupree: [W]hen you lose your identity, you've lost your soul
Afghan-Americans Demonstrate Against Taliban Relic Destruction
Rabbani: Condemns Taliban’s action
The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan
(March 5, 2001, AP)-- The Swedish Committee for Afghanistan, a humanitarian group that has been working for more than two decades in Afghanistan, issued a statement condemning the destruction, calling it a tragedy and saying it further alienated the Taliban in the international community.
"This action causes serious doubts whether the Taliban want to be part of the international community," the statement said.
Nancy Dupree:
[W]hen you lose your identity, you've lost your soul
"It is absolutely sickening. I can't believe what I'm hearing," Nancy Dupree, a leading expert on Afghan history who is involved in historic preservation in Afghanistan, said Thursday in a telephone interview from London. "You could not enter the Bamian Valley without being in awe of the creative dynamism of these figures. They belong to the whole world."
"Why spend money on an old building when the people need so much?" Her answer: "These old buildings are Afghanistan's identity. And when you lose your identity, you've lost your soul."
Statement by the Institute for
Afghan Studies
March 01, 2001
The latest edict regarding the destruction of Bamyan statues and other pre-Islamic artifacts will be a cultural tragedy without question, if
and when implemented. We Afghans have to speak out in one voice to save us and future generations from the deliberate destruction of priceless
historic artifacts that represent the soul and identity of Afghans everywhere in the world. This particular edict of the
Taliban, which clearly has no basis in Islamic Sharia, will result in irreparable
damage to Afghan and indeed to world history and heritage.
Taliban must understand that the statues are not symbols or idols worshiped by the people of Afghanistan, whose
overwhelming majority are
Muslims. Rather the statues represent great achievements of Afghans and
their long history and testify to the tolerance of Islam and Muslims of
Afghanistan. Destroying historical artifacts would damage Afghan
history and heritage and we Afghans and the world would be the losers
of this reckless and un-Islamic act.
So to save our cultural heritage, we call upon all Afghans to make their
concerns known to the concerned authorities and to do so promptly. The
historic significance of the event also calls on us Afghans to raise
above pity personal and factional quarrels and to act in accordance with
our national interests, while there is still time to act so. Similarly,
the international community must act swiftly and help save the supreme
statues and invaluable artifacts, which belong to the history of
mankind.
Press Release from the Institute for Afghan Studies
Rabbani: Condemns Taliban’s action
The head of anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan, its internationally recognized president, condemned the Taliban campaign to destroy the country's pre-Islamic heritage.
``We strongly condemn and oppose the Taliban's anti-national and anti-cultural action,'' Burhanuddin Rabbani said in a statement prepared in his remote northern headquarters.
Afghan-Americans
Demonstrate Against Taliban Relic Destruction
U.S. Newswire
7 Mar 16:30
Afghan-Americans Demonstrate Against Taliban Destruction Of Relics; Call For Prosecution, And Strong U.S. And World Action
The Afghan-American community in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, including a wide array of political, social and community groups, and concerned Americans will demonstrate in front of the U.S. Department of State on Thursday, March 8 at noon, to protest the Taliban extremists' deliberate desecration of pre-Islamic statues and artifacts in Afghanistan.
Calling for an immediate end to this insane act of "cultural genocide" by the Taliban militia, the protesters will ask that the Administration of George W. Bush take more effective measures, and act forcefully to exert meaningful pressure on the Taliban's main supporters and mentors in Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to end the cultural carnage undertaken by the militia. They will also ask that the international community designate the Taliban a terrorist group, and bring the perpetrators of this and other crimes to justice at an international tribunal.
Congressman Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.) who is expected to attend and talk along with other members of the U.S. Congress said that he deplores what the Taliban are doing, wholeheartedly supports the Afghan-Americans at the rally, and also supports the formulation of a comprehensive and effective policy by the new Administration in regard to Afghanistan.
"Afghans everywhere are outraged by the Taliban decision to destroy the country's 2000-year-old Buddhist heritage, including the world tallest standing Buddhas in Bamyan, and urge strong action," said Prof. Amanullah
Haiderzad, a renowned Afghan artist and former Dean of Kabul University's Fine Arts Department.
Other prominent speakers will include Dr. Michael
Vlahos, former professor at Johns Hopkins University and Reagan Administration State Dept. political appointee, and Afghan community leaders.
The demonstrators will also deliver a protest letter to the Pakistani Embassy in Washington, asking for the military government of that country to cease interfering in Afghan affairs, call back its armed citizens fighting alongside the Taliban, and withdraw support from the
Taliban.