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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (9084)	3/19/2001 10:46:39 AM
From: Lane3	Respond to of 82486

Monday March 19 8:47 AM ET Taliban Atone for Delay in Destroying Statues By Sayed Salahuddin KABUL, Afghanistan (news - web sites) (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. In Kabul, 12 cows were slaughtered in the presidential palace while the rest were sacrificed in other Taliban-held areas around the country, officials said. While most of the world was outraged by the destruction of the Afghan heritage, the movement's reclusive leader Mullah Mohammad Omar ordered the sacrifices to atone for not smashing all statues, which he considers pagan idols, earlier. ``Based on the order, the slaughtered meat will be distributed to the poor residents of Kabul and other areas,'' a Taliban official told reporters at the presidential palace in Kabul. Each one would receive around 2.2 pounds of meat, the official added, as workers packed the bloody chunks of meat into plastic bags. The Taliban argue that the destruction of the statues, including the two colossal Buddhas in Bamiyan province, is based on Islamic law and is an internal issue. The move has drawn international condemnation, with many Islamic countries questioning the religious basis for the decision. Many Buddhist countries have been especially angered at the destruction of Afghanistan's pre-Islamic Buddhist heritage, although the Taliban have denied the campaign was aimed against their religion. Taliban authorities say they may lift a ban on journalists visiting Bamiyan Wednesday to allow them to see the rubble of the sculptures, which once soared 175 feet and 125 feet. Museum statue collections across the country have also been destroyed. The current state of the Bamiyan statues, which were carved into a cliff, has yet to be verified, although the difference between Taliban accounts is only whether all traces have been eradicated or some pieces of rock remain. The statues, once Afghanistan's best-known historic treasure, date from an era nearly 2,000 years ago, when the country, at the heart of trade routes across Asia, was a center of Buddhist civilization.