www.newsandletters.org
|
|
NEWS & LETTERS, May 2002
Column: Our Life and Times by Kevin A. Barry
Taliban crimes revealed
"Those who burn books will
also burn people," it was said in 1933. Something similar occurred under
Taliban rule in Afghanistan. During their last year in power, it has now been
revealed, they not only dynamited the 1,500-year-old Buddhist statues at Bamiyan,
but also methodically used sledgehammers to destroy thousands of Buddhist
statues at the National Museum in Kabul. Reportedly, much of the damage at the museum was done by an Al Qaeda squad, after local Taliban units refused to take part in this rape of their country's cultural heritage. Near Bamiyan, United Nations investigators have also turned up mass graves from among the estimated 15,000 members of the Hazara ethnic minority murdered by the Taliban. Had the world paid more attention at the time, perhaps September 11 might have been prevented. |
|
Home l News & Letters Newspaper l Back issues l News and Letters Committees l Dialogues l Raya Dunayevskaya l Contact us l Search Published by News and Letters Committees |
