RUSSIAN ACADEMY OF ARTISTS: SAVE STATUES IN AFGHANISTAN








MOSCOW, 7 March. /Corr. RIA Novosti Yevgeniya Yakuta/.


	The Russian Academy of Artists has expressed it "extreme concern" over the Taliban's destruction of ancient religious statues in Afghanistan and called on the UN, UNESCO and the international community to "spare no effort" to save them.


	A RIA Novosti correspondent reports that the appeal distributed today at the 565th session of the academy in Moscow, stressed that the destruction of the most ancient monuments to Buddha in Afghanistan represented "the greatest tragedy for culture and an irreplaceable loss for humankind." The document also stated that "this vandalism has nothing to do with Islam, which advocates human love and tolerance." Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexii II, who is taking part in the working session, added his support to the proposal and proposed that the matter of religious monuments destroyed in Kosovo be also included in the document. He reminded those present that the Kosovo Liberation Army had already blown up 79 Orthodox churches in the province.