TALIBANS DESTROY MONUMENTS TO BUDDHA








NEW DELHI, MARCH 3, 2001. /RIA Novosti correspondent Igor Alexandrov/ -- Taliban units use mortars, artillery guns, tanks and grenade-launchers to raise to the ground two monuments of  Buddha in the valley of Baniana, Central Afghanistan. Ignoring  the protests of the international public at large and calls from UNESCO, Talibans began a planned destruction of Buddhist  monuments in the territory of their country on March 2. 


	Explosives are being brought to the foundation of sculptures dated between the 2nd and the 5th centuries. Talibans claim that their "fighters shoot at sculptures obeying their own feelings."  The outburst of such "feelings" occurred after Taliban  leader Mohammad Omar decreed the destruction of all non-Islamic monuments in order to prevent worshipping of "false idols."  On Friday Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vadjpayee  appealed to the heads of leading countries, including Russia, the U.S., France, Japan and Britain, and UN Secretary General Kofi  Annan, to prevent the destruction of monuments which represent  cultural value for the humanity as a whole.