UNESCO ENVOY SENT TO AFGHANISTAN
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Paris, March 2 (No.2001-31)
- UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura has sent a special envoy to
Afghanistan to deliver a message to the Taliban authorities, urging them to
reverse their decision to destroy the ancient statues of Afghanistan’s
cultural heritage.
The Director-General’s special envoy is
Pierre Lafrance, France’s former Ambassador to Pakistan and a founding member
of the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage (SPACH).
“I chose someone who is
well-known and respected in the region, who is very knowledgeable about issues
pertaining to the Middle East and Central Asia,” Mr Matsuura said this morning
at the opening at UNESCO Headquarters of an international symposium entitled “Cultural
Heritage of Central Asia.” The Director-General told participants about the
various initiatives undertaken to “reverse this move into absurdity undertaken
by the authorities in Kabul.”
Mr Matsuura spoke of the
emergency meeting he convened last night of the Ambassadors to UNESCO from the
54 Member States that belong to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, to
discuss joint action to be taken, saying: “Their voices unanimously came
together in vigorous condemnation of these unacceptable attacks on humanity’s
common heritage. Like me, they feel helpless but are equally determined to join
me in taking concrete action.”
He added: “I am working to co-ordinate all
efforts, be they diplomatic, media-based or linked to the mobilization of the
international cultural community.”
During a press briefing this
morning, Mounir Bouchenaki, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Culture,
spoke of endeavours to safeguard the Afghan heritage undertaken, or supported,
by UNESCO over recent years and of the possible creation of a special assistance
fund for the monuments of Afghanistan. He stressed the fact that the Taleban’s
decision was unanimously condemned by the Islamic countries from Africa to the
Gulf and Asia and that no serious religious rationale could be at the root of
this iconoclastic move.
Peter King, the Chairperson of
the World Heritage Committee, expressed profound distress by these barbaric acts
and voiced full support, in the name of the Committee, for the Director-General’s
initiatives.
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