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Ko chiro 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 told participants about the various initiatives undertaken to reverse this move into absurdity undertaken by the authorities in Kabul. Like me, they feel helpless but are equally determined to join me in taking concrete action. 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.