A/56/253 Year Number of States having received more than one communication 1996 2 States received 2 communications each 1 State received 5 communications 1997 2 States received 2 communications each 1998 6 States received 2 communications each 1 State received 3 communications 1999 5 States received 2 communications each 4 States received 3 communications each 1 State received 5 communications 2000 12 States received 2 communications each 5 States received 3 communications each 3 States received 4 communications each 1 State received 5 communications 2001 11 States received 2 communications each 4 States received 3 communications each 2 States received 4 communications each 1 State received 5 communications 88. The sending of more than one communication for a given State began in 1989, then rose significantly in 1999 and again in 2000. As of that time, at least 11 States were each concerned by 2 communications, whereas regularly one State was covered by 5 communications and the practice of sending 3 to 4 communications per State developed. This practice is by no means selective with respect to a given State, but reflects especially critical situations or cases within a given country. It is true that it has increased significantly since the year 2000, for it has also become a means of regular follow-up and not merely of isolated monitoring of serious problems in a particular State, such as the situation of Christian communities affected by a campaign of repression on the part of Muslim officials and extremists and also, in Georgia, the problems encountered by minorities. 89. The number of urgent appeals remains limited, since the purpose underlying the introduction, in 1994, of this new type of communication under the mandate on freedom of religion or belief, was to respond more efficiently and more promptly to very grave situations or cases. These include cases or situations involving extreme manifestations of fanaticism or obscurantism having consequences for humanity as a whole, such as the destruction of the pre-Islamic monuments, including the statues of Buddha in Bamyan, an integral part of the world heritage, by the Taliban in Afghanistan; their plan to have all non-Muslims wear a distinctive sign on their clothes, reminiscent of the horrors of the Second World War. These urgent appeals also cover assaults causing bodily harm (assassinations, disappearances, detentions and so forth) or threat thereof (threats, death penalty and so forth). The urgent appeal is also necessary in the case of violation of the very essence of freedom of conscience, belief or religion, as, for example in the case of Professor Nasr Hamed Abu Zid of Cairo University in Egypt, who has been declared an apostate by the Egyptian courts which have allegedly decided to separate him from his Muslim wife 28