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After talks with, among others, the Taliban Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mullah Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil, Mr Lafrance indicated that there was still hope that the Buddha statues at Bamiyan might be saved. All doors are not closed. Contacts are continuing and new consultations are taking place among theologians in Afghanistan, Mr Lafrance declared, confirming, however, that the Taliban have destroyed small statues in the museums of the towns of Ghazni, Jalalabad and Herat. Other voices have been raised against the Taliban s decision to destroy pre-Islamic statues. Two important Islamic religious authorities have, moreover, already expressed points of view contrary to that of the Afghan Taliban.