Dear fellow listers,

The posts on this topic were so thoughtful I thought you would not mind
this petition being posted. Thank you.

Subj:   Petition to UN re Buddha statues
Date:   3/8/01 6:50:50 PM Eastern Standard Time

Subj:   APPEAL- UNESCO Petition to Safeguard Afghanistan Cultural
Heritage
Date:  Thu, Mar 8, 2001 1:10 AM PST
From: [log in to unmask] (Caroline Humphrey)
Sender: [log in to unmask]
Reply-to: [log in to unmask] (Caroline Humphrey)
A distribution of: CentralAsia-L - Announcement List for Central Asian
Studies

APPEAL- UNESCO Petition to Safeguard Afghanistan Cultural Heritage
Forwarded from: Gosselin, HElEne-M.
Sent: mardi 6 mars 2001 13:25

Dear Colleagues:

As you were informed by UNESCOPress, the Organization has launched an
international petition and a special emergency fund to safeguard
Afghan cultural heritage. We ask that you give the international e-mail
petition below the widest possible distribution in your country.
Sincerely yours,
Mounir Bouchenaki (ADG/CLT) Helene-Marie Gosselin (DIR/OPI)
N.B. For more news and details on the UNESCO petition and special
fund, please consult: http://www.unesco.org/opi2/afghan-crisis/
*********

UNESCO International Petition to Safeguard Afghanistan Cultural
Heritage We, the undersigned, plead for an immediate end to the Taliban
edict to demolish Afghanistan's cultural heritage. We further urge the
Taliban spiritual leader Mullah Mohammed Omar to enter into dialogue
with the international community--including the Arab and Islamic
governments
that overwhelmingly have condemned these actions--in order to explore
proposals to safeguard this irreplaceable cultural heritage from
further, senseless destruction.

The edict of the 26th of February 2001 to destroy pre-Islamic and
Buddhist objects--including the world's largest standing Buddha statues
at
Bamiyan--runs counter to all the basic principles of respect,
tolerance and the wisdom upon which Islam is based, and is a breach of
the Taliban pledge made in 1999. We plead with Taliban authorities to
stop this
irreversible assault on two millennia of Afghanistan's artistic and
cultural achievements, treasured not only as the spiritual birthright of
Buddhists everywhere but also as a universal cultural heritage for
people of all faiths and nationalities.

- Please sign and also forward this e-mail to friends, family, news
groups, mailing lists etc.
- To avoid adding ">>>" onto the chain, please preferably cut &
paste the entire petition and list of names into a new message prior to
re-sending. - The 100th, 200th, 300th etc. name to sign is requested to
also forward the updated list of signatures back to the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization at e-mail:
"[log in to unmask]".


1. Thubten Chodron, Seattle WA
2. Shenghai Li, Madison, WI
3. Maria Montenegro, Howell, NJ
4. Terri McNichol, Princeton, NJ
-

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