Statue-smashing Taleban slurs Islam

But all that changed when one of America's "most wanted" — the fugitive Saudi millionaire Osama bin Laden — found safe haven under the umbrella of the Taleban regime in Afghanistan.

The US spearheaded a campaign to hit Afghanistan with a rash of UN sanctions— not once, but twice. 

But the irony of it all is that the Afghans, now under attack by the US, were once mostly armed and trained by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) bent on ousting the Soviet-backed regime at that time. 

The sanctions, which were imposed by the Security Council in October 1999 and strengthened further in December last year, were meant to punish the Taleban government because of its links to international terrorism.

Afghanistan remains one of the world's most isolated countries with diplomatic links to only three of the 189 UN member states — Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and the United Arab Emirates.

Although the Taleban controls more than 90 percent of the territory in Afghanistan, it has been shut out of the UN General Assembly. The UN seat is still being held by the ousted government of President Burhanuddin Rabani.

Clearly, there is no love lost between the United Nations and the Taleban regime.

Unfortunately, the sanctions, like most UN sanctions, have not affected the rulers, as much as they have devastated the people.

The people of Afghanistan have not only suffered the consequences of a prolonged military conflict and a fast-spreading drought but also grinding poverty and harsh restrictions imposed on their movements — particularly the rigid rules governing women and young girls who are being shut out of schools and barred from seeking employment.

The UN Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, Radhika Coomaraswamy of Sri Lanka, relates a story of how when she met one of the senior Taleban officials in Afghanistan, he refused to hold face-to-face talks with her. 

The entire conversation was carried out while he turned his back to her. The Taleban just doesn't want to deal with women because it believes that women have no place in public life.

Coomaraswamy was right in describing the Taleban as misogynists: being obsessed with a hatred for women.

And over the last few weeks the Taleban regime has picked up more enemies — and more denunciations — primarily for its decision to destroy Buddhist artifacts, including the historically-revered Buddha statues in Bamiyan.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who met Taliban officials last week, said if they continued to carry through their "lamentable decision, they would be doing themselves a great deal of disservice, and they would be doing a great deal of disservice to Islam in whose name they claim to be doing this.

"But I do not think anyone will accept that because not many, or hardly any, Islamic scholars or religious leaders have supported their position," he noted.

The UN General Assembly has already adopted, without a vote, a resolution that "strongly" urges the Taleban "to take immediate action to prevent the further destruction of the irreplaceable relicts, monuments and artifacts of Afghanistan's cultural heritage."

The draft resolution, which was co-sponsored by 93 of the 189 member states, said it was "deeply concerned and appalled" by the Taleban edict of Feb 26 ordering the destruction of all statues and non-Islamic shrines in Afghanistan, "and by the deliberate ongoing destruction of these relics and monuments, which belong to the common heritage of mankind."

Sri Lanka's Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador John de Saram, who pledged the country's cooperation in any international efforts to prevent the further destruction of Buddhist relics, said that Sri Lanka was one of the first co-sponsors of the resolution.

Last week Annan responded to a letter written by President Chandrika Kumaratunga and assured his support to do everything within his means to save Buddhist artifacts and sculptures.

Ambassador Dieter Kastrup of Germany, who introduced the draft resolution, told delegates that Islamic regimes had protected the cultural heritage of Afghanistan, including the unique monumental statues at Bamiyan, for 1,400 years.

"Islam had a centuries-old tradition of wisdom and tolerance, which the barbarous destruction contradicted, sending false ideas about that religion," he added.

Last week, the Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Koichiro Matsuura, welcomed the fact that the International Criminal Tribunal in the Hague had set a historic precedent declaring the destruction of historical monuments "a crime against cultural property."

The 16-count indictment related to the 1991 attacks on the ancient port city of Dubrovnik in Croatia.

"This important precedent shows the international community can take action to protect cultural property and apply sanctions for its protection," he added.