Pubdate: Wed, 24 Jan 2001
Source: Hindu, The (India)
Copyright: 2001 The Hindu
Contact:  http://www.the-hindu.com/
Author: B. Muralidhar Reddy

AFGHANISTAN - A CHALLENGE IN DRUG CONTROL

ISLAMABAD, JAN. 23 Afghanistan, which accounts for 95 per cent of the 
opium production in the world along with Myanmar, continues to be the 
biggest challenge in drug control for the world community.

The `world drug report 2000,' released by the United Nations Office 
for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (UNDCP) here, acknowledges that 
curtailing opium production and availability of heroin would not be 
an easy task given the character of the Taliban that has control over 
95 per cent of the territory in A Afghanistan.

Releasing the report, the representative of the UNDCP in Pakistan, 
Mr. Bernard Frahi, told a news conference here on Monday that his 
organisation was engaged in negotiations with the Taliban regime as 
well as the Northern Alliance on measures to be taken to curtail 
opium production.

Asked about the decree issued by the Taliban supreme leader, Mullah 
Omar, a few months ago banning poppy cultivation, Mr. Frahi admitted 
that given the intensity of conflict in Afghanistan, it was difficult 
to ascertain the impact of the decree.

He said Pakistan was a great success story in South Asia in 
curtailing poppy production. According to figures, poppy cultivation 
in the country has come down to five tonnes from 800 tonnes. ``It is 
negligible in international terms'', he added.

On Afghanistan, the report, quoting a survey, said that opium poppy 
was cultivated in approximately 91,000 hectares in 1999, an increase 
of more than 40 per cent over the previous year. In 2000, cultivation 
declined by some ten per cent.

It said the total value of Afghan opium crop was around $200 million 
a year and slightly less than $100 million at harvest time in 2000 
essentially due to fall in prices in the international market. 
``Moreover, results for 2000 - though far from satisfactory - show 
that even in Afghanistan opium production can go down.''

Mr. Frahi said his organisation had been working on an action plan in 
Afghanistan. It was designed to build a coalition of countries 
bordering Afghanistan with the aim of forming an integrated strategy 
to bring down opium production and trafficking while ensuring that 
these activities were not simply displaced to adjacent areas.
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