05/03/2001 (Agence Europe) - Anna Lindh, President of the EU Council, expressed her "dismay" and "feeling of powerlessness" on learning that the Talibans had begun to destroy pre-Islamic statues and "other cultural treasures". Recalling the declaration the Fifteen made on this subject (see EUROPE of 3 March, p.5), she said that Taliban representatives had initially provided the EU with assurances that the decree on the destruction of the monuments had not actually been put into practice. The...