Taliban Trying to Shift Blame by Cooking New Stories
UF gives List of Taliban Leaders Sent to Destroy the Statues in Bamyan

Washington, March 16, 2001 - AAR - News reports from inside Afghanistan indicate that the Taliban leadership is devising new ways to avoid possible prosecution under international law for the destruction of the country's ancient relics. Sources say that the Pakistani-backed Taliban are attempting to confuse the situation by shifting the blame from a small group of known leaders - including the group's totalitarian head Mullah M. Omar - to a larger one. Meanwhile opposition United Front sources have printed the names of 13 Taliban leaders who personally took part in the destruction of the Bamyan Buddha statues last week.

Contrary to previous statements made by the Taliban, other press reports now quote Taliban propaganda officials as saying that the Taliban movement's 400-strong "Council of religious scholars" proclaimed the statues as "unIslamic" and ordered their destruction. Another Taliban report says that over 4,000 Taliban fighters took part in the demolition of the famed statues.

Earlier Taliban announcements through the militia's Shariat Radio in Kabul had pointed to Mullah Omar's "edict" following a "Supreme Court" finding as the source of the decision.

United Front's Payame-Mujahed news service based inside Afghanistan identified 13 Taliban officials as active participants in the demolition of the Bamyan statues: Mullah Obaidullah (Defense Minister), Mullah Abdul Razaq (Interior Minister), Mullah Shahzada (commander-in-charge of the project), Mowlawi Akhtar Muhamad Osmani (Kandahar garrison commander), Mullah Abdul Salam "racketi", Mowlawi Sufi Gardezi, Mowlawi Naqibulah Ahadyar (Kabul Museum Director), Mullah Faiz Muhamad, Mowlawi Muhamad Islam (Bamyan governor), commander Ghulam Muhamad Maidani, Mowlawi Qudratullah Jamal (Information and culture minister), Mowlawi M. Salim Haqani (deputy minister Vice and Virtue), Mowlawi Wali Muhamad (minister of vice and virtue).

M. Yunus Qanooni, a UF leader and close aide to military commander Ahmad Shah Massoud, told AAR on Friday that a number of Taliban officials and commander opposing the destruction edict were in contact with UF forces but were not in a position to pose any substantial challenge to the hard-liners who have the upper hand. The UF accuses Pakistan's ISI military intelligence, the Osama Ben Laden network and known Pakistani militant organizations based in Taliban territories of backing the hardline Taliban, and of active involvement in the destruction of the Afghan relics and artifacts.

The names of the 400 clerics, who are alleged to have issued the destruction orders,  have not been released, but analysts say that this new allegation is a smokescreen to deflect any future legal proceedings against the Taliban. Most prominent Islamic scholars and Muftis - the only legal authorities known to issue edicts - have rejected the Taliban decision as unfounded. Also, according to International law experts, in 1979, Afghanistan ratified the 1972 Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

According to Arab and Afghan sources, the Taliban's most important military and religious decisions are taken by a group of about 15 men, including some Pakistani and Arab citizens, who act as Mullah Omar's inner circle. /