Pubdate: Mon, 19 Nov 2001
Source: Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Copyright: 2001 The Sydney Morning Herald
Contact:  http://www.smh.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/441
Author: Francis Elliott, The Telegraph, London

HEROIN BUY-UP MOOTED TO STEM AFGHAN TRADE

Britain and the United States are to devote millions of dollars to try to 
end Afghanistan's heroin trade.

One option being considered is to buy this year's entire opium harvest at 
black-market prices - on the condition that farmers then plough up their 
poppy fields and sow a different crop.

The move to tackle the menace of heroin came as new evidence emerged that 
warlords of the Northern Alliance were conniving in the renewed planting of 
poppy fields under the cover of war.

United Nations drug monitors say the weakening Taliban grip over 
drug-producing areas of Afghanistan has allowed farmers to exploit the last 
weeks of the sowing season.

Kemal Kurspahic, a spokesman for the Vienna-based UN Office of Drug Control 
and Crime Prevention, said: "The sowing season is October and early 
November. Many farmers are now free of Taliban control, and our staff in 
Pakistan have received reports that some are planting. We will only know in 
February how many poppy fields there are when they begin to grow."

Although the US and Britain had accused the Taliban of relaxing their ban 
on poppy farming, the UN says farmers are acting out of desperation and the 
absence of anyone to enforce the proscription of the trade. It also 
believes that the bulk of the drug is being produced in Northern Alliance 
strongholds.

One, Badakhshan, was responsible for 83 per cent of the crop produced last 
year, earning as much as $A100 million for the producers. The total for 
this year is expected to be still higher as farmers, lured by high prices, 
have for the first time grown a second crop.

A return to the record levels of opium produced before the ban imposed by 
the Taliban would be a big embarrassment to Britain and the US, which have 
repeatedly cited the regime's involvement in the drugs trade as a 
justification for military action.

However, with farmers being paid as much as $A700 a kilogram last year, 
experts concede that eradication will be extremely difficult, even if the 
new government in Kabul co-operates, of which the UN is far from certain.

Production of raw opium fell by 94 per cent after it was outlawed by the 
Taliban.
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