Pubdate: Mon, 18 Feb 2002 Source: Financial Times (UK) Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2002 Contact: http://www.ft.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/154 Author: John Mason ASIA-PACIFIC: US AND UN 'IGNORING' MENACE OF DRUGS CULTIVATION The US and United Nations have ignored repeated calls by the international anti-drugs community to address the increasing menace of Afghanistan's opium cultivation, threatening a rift between Europe and the US as they begin to reconstruct the country. With the US focused on its anti-terror campaign and the UN hamstrung by a drugs agency discredited by the misallocation of funds by Pino Arlacchi, its former chief, the fight against Afghanistan's drugs problem was facing an uphill battle, diplomats and anti-drugs officials said. The UN's international narcotics control board has approached the UN Security Council several times regarding the issue. "It's not so much a contentious issue but it's just not high on the radar screen," one diplomat explained. European governments believe one of the reasons the US is "out to lunch on the issue", as one diplomat put it, is that Afghan heroin is not a significant player in the US drugs market, accounting for less than 5 per cent of consumption. Colombia, he said, was the focus of the US anti-drugs campaign. This is in sharp contrast to Europe, where Afghan heroin is viewed as a main source of the region's trade in hard drugs. The US narcotics division in the State Department has also been sidelined in part because of its support for Mr Arlacchi, who was forced to leave UN Drug Control Programme at the beginning of the year, leaving behind a rudderless and severely weakened organisation. Adding to the malaise is the difficulty Kofi Annan, the UN secretary- general, is having filling Mr Arlacchi's position. Italy is insisting the post go to its candidate, threatening to withhold funding if Mr Annan chooses from among the other hopefuls, who include an Iranian/British drugs expert and a Portuguese ambassador. Intelligence estimates suggest that the current harvest has the potential to produce 4,500 tonnes of opium or 450 tonnes of heroin. About 150 tonnes of Afghan heroin has been entering the European market annually - equivalent to 95 per cent of the European heroin trade. After the last record harvest in 1999-2000, the then Taliban government announced that it was freezing further production. However, western officials now believe that the Taliban was simply stockpiling in order to stabilise the price of raw opium. While some of these stocks are thought to have been targeted by US coalition forces, intelligence officials now believe the majority had already been moved out of Afghanistan by the Taliban in the aftermath of September 11. But the growing insecurity in Afghanistan had slowed development agencies' ability to begin crop substitution programmes among farmers who were about to sow next season's poppy harvest, officials said. Cindy Hamilton-Fazey, professor of international drug policy at Liverpool University, said: "With a weak government in Kabul and a US government that is more interested in oil and counterterrorism in the region than drugs, it is inevitable that poppy cultivation is rapidly reasserting itself and that the tribal warlords will try and maximise their revenue from it." Additional reporting by John Mason Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-2002 * * * ASIA-PACIFIC: Afghanistan opium crop threatens Europe Financial Times; Feb 18, 2002 By JIMMY BURNS and CAROLA HOYOS Afghan farmers are preparing to harvest a potential bumper opium crop that threatens to fuel the illicit drugs trade in the surrounding region and flood Europe with heroin by the end of this year. According to western intelligence and customs officials, Afghans planted vigorously in the autumn in areas liberated from the Taliban and now beyond the control of the new administration in Kabul. British officials believe that unless urgent action is taken militarily to back a crop eradication and aid effort in the Helmand and Nangahar regions within the next four weeks, a large opium crop could be ready for harvest by June. The assessment is provoking fresh tension between the US and its European allies. British officials - backed by the German, Spanish and Italian governments - want a more vigorous logistical support to be offered to a new aid programme in the poppy growing areas which would include construction work and crop substitution. For the UK, the political stakes are high. Tony Blair, prime minister, identified the opportunity for eradicating opium production in Afghanistan when justifying British military involvement with the US bombing campaign last October. But now British officials say that such early optimism was misplaced, with the US government showing little interest in evidence that opium is being cultivated. . "The fact is that on the drugs issue it is showing limited interest and partnership," one official said. The United Nations security council, of which the US and UK are permanent members, together with Russia, China and France, has not broached the subject in earnest, in part because of Washington's ambivalence. The UN 's drugs control agency, which had been active in combating Afghanistan's poppy production before September 11, has been sidelined by the misallocation of funds by Pino Arlacchi, its former head. This left Europe without a multilateral avenue to pursue the problem, diplomats said. Meanwhile, intelligence estimates suggest that the current harvest has the potential to produce 4,500 tonnes of opium or 450 tonnes of heroin. About 150 tonnes of Afghan heroin has been entering the European market annually - - equivalent to 95 per cent of the European heroin trade. And in Afghanistan, farmers are getting ready to sow the next season's poppy crop. "Without a crop substitution programme in place, you can't blame the farmers," said one diplomat. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D