GLOBAL COMMUNITY ATTEMPTS TO STOP DESTRUCTION OF BUDDAH STATUES








ISLAMABAD, March 9, 2001 /From RIA Novosti correspondent Vladimir Shreter/ -- The global community does not cease its attempts to stop Talibs threatening to carry through the destruction of ancient Buddah statues.


	A delegation of Japanese MPs representing various political parties of the country arrived in Islamabad yesterday. The delegates are going to hold meetings with Afghanistan's fundamentalist top, including with Taleban Foreign Minister Mawlawi Wakil Ahmad Mutwakil.


	The Japanese delegates met with Taleban ambassador Abdul Salam Zaeef in the Pakistani capital city and left for Kwetta from where they will go to Kandahar by car. In Kandahar, they are expected to request Taleban leaders not to destroy the monuments of Buddhist culture.


	Ambassador of Qatar to Islamabad Mohammad Falah, is known to have handed over his emir's message to the Taleban diplomatic mission on Thursday. The message is also calling to stop the destruction of the historical monuments.


	A visit to Islamabad by Sri Lanka's Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickremanayake is scheduled on this next Saturday. The premier is arriving for talks with Taleban officials and Pakistani authorities supporting the Cabul regime on the agenda dominated by the preservation of the statues. President Chandrika Kumaratunga of Sri Lanka, in her turn, has voiced eagerness to fund an international project that would aim to preserve these precious Buddhist relics.


	According to local media reports, the Pakistani ruler, General Perwez Musharraf, has decided to send Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider to Kandahar tomorrow as a mediator at the talks on the future of the unique statues located in Bamian Province. The minister will have to meet with mullah Omar, the spiritual leader Talibs, and try to convince him to suspend the verdict authorising the destruction of monuments of pre-Islamic culture, first of all the two monuments to Buddah in Bamian.


	The problem is that Islam does not allow fetwas, or religious verdicts, to be canceled. Islamic theologians have to issue a new verdict to change an undesirable one. Media reports claim, Haider will be accompanied by prominent Pakistani theologians who will try to make the Afghan fundamentalists change their mind with the help of their profound knowledge of Sharia.