March 19, 2001

Anti-Taliban Groups Will Protest High Ranking Official’s Visit  --NEW--

Refugee Crisis in Northern Afghanistan
Tens of Thousands Threatened by Famine and War
Andreas Rüesch 16 March 2001 / Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 13 March 2001
Since last autumn, war and drought have forced nearly half a million people to flee their homes. Now they are acutely threatened by famine. Near the

Footage shows Buddhas blast

BBC News
The Taleban blew up the statues using dynamite
Dramatic pictures of the Taleban's destruction of ancient statues of Buddha in Afghanistan have been released.

Refugee Crisis in Northern Afghanistan
Tens of Thousands Threatened by Famine and War
Andreas Rüesch 16 March 2001 / Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 13 March 2001
Since last autumn, war and drought have forced nearly half a million people to flee their homes. Now they are acutely threatened by famine. Near the

Taliban atone for statue destruction delay
By Sayed Salahuddin
KABUL, March 19 (Reuters) - Afghanistan's ruling Taliban on Monday carried out the ritual slaughter of 100 cows to atone for not acting earlier to destroy all the country's statues, including two giant Buddhas.

UN Security Council should discuss Buddhas' destruction : Russia
MOSCOW, March 17 (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that the UN Security Council should discuss the destruction of two ancient Buddha statues by Afghanistan's Taliban militia.

FM urged to take concrete steps against Taliban
Tehran, March 18, IRNA -- Iran's Cultural Heritage Organization (CHO) in a letter to President Mohammad Khatami called on Foreign Ministry to adopt measures

India joins anti-Taliban coalition
By Rahul Bedi - Jane's - Intelligence Review 15 March 2001
India is believed to have joined Russia, the USA and Iran in a concerted front against Afghanistan's Taliban regime.

Musharraf's game plan
Jane's - Intelligence Digest -
16 March 2001
Will Pakistan's Chief Executive General Pervez Musharraf keep his promise to follow the Supreme Court's directive to restore civilian rule in the country by October 2002?

Million Afghan Refugees
Sunday, March 18 (People's Daily) -- The Pakistani Minister for Kashmir Affairs Abbas Sarfraz Statues Still Intact

Taliban shuts off Bamiyan, threatens Mainichi reporter
By Takayuki Kasuga - Mainichi Correspondent  3/19/01
BAMIYAN, Afghanistan - The fundamentalist Taliban rulers have cut off Bamiyan - where they have obliterated two giant Buddhist statues - from the outside world and threatened

Afghan refugees dying in camps where UN is barred from helping
Rory McCarthy In Jalozai, Pakistan - The Scotsman
FOR two days Khudadad walked with his wife and six children from their drought-stricken village in Baglan, in northern Afghanistan, to the capital, Kabul.

Taliban Smashed Buddhas in Rage Over Food Aid, NY Times Says
Washington, March 19 (Bloomberg) -- A Taliban envoy said the Islamic rulers in Afghanistan decided to smash two giant Buddha statues after a foreign delegation offered money

Senior adviser to Mullah M. Omar, visiting the US and spreading falsehoods
AAR Note:
The issue of this Taliban special envoy, also introduced as a "senior adviser to Mullah M. Omar," visiting the US and spreading falsehoods and outright lies is not

Bin Laden's issue creates rift in Taliban
NEW DELHI: The issue of handing over Saudi billionaire turned militant Osama Bin Laden to the United States has created a rift in Afghanistan's Taliban militia as one

SRI LANKA BIDS TO SAVE AFGHAN STATUES
Monday,March 19,2001 - By WILLIAM J. GORTA - New York Post
The island nation of Sri Lanka wants to buy the remnants of the gigantic Buddha statues destroyed by Taliban extremists in Afghanistan, CNN reported yesterday.

Seminar criticizes Taliban mentors - DAWN
KARACHI, March 18: The Taliban are not solely responsible for the present situation in Afghanistan as those who once supported them and encouraged their "obscurantist tendencies" were equally blameworthy.

Taliban's demolition of Buddha statues a 'barbaric act'
Monks in Ottawa condemn actions - Karina Roman The Ottawa Citizen
Several Buddhist monks and ambassadorial representatives gathered in Ottawa yesterday to voice their anger at the destruction of two giant Buddha statues in Afghanistan and

The Taliban's world
By Khalid Hasan - DAWN opinion
THE destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas may finally persuade those that recognize the Taliban regime to question its distorted interpretation of the Sharia. Until now,

Destruction of statues
DAWN Letter
IN everything that the Taliban in Afghanistan have done so far, or failed to do, they have succeeded in confirming time and again the general apprehension that they are an uneducated lot.