Annan: Afghan Buddhas a 'disservice'

The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, says the Taleban authorities in Afghanistan have done themselves a great disservice by deciding to destroy all the country's Buddhist statues.

Mr Annan said he'd been told by the Taleban foreign minister Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil that all moveable Buddhist statues had already been destroyed -- but the demolition of two giant Buddhas carved into rock in the central city of Bamiyan was still continuing.

A Taleban spokesman told the BBC the giant Buddhas had not been completely destroyed -- but they would be.

Earlier reports from Afghanistan suggested that the two figures were blown up on Thursday and Friday in defiance of an international campaign of protest.

However, there have been no recent eye-witness accounts.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service