Pubdate: Fri, 02 Apr 2004 Source: Financial Times (UK) Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2004 Contact: http://www.ft.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/154 Author: Hugh Williamson in Berlin and Victoria Burnett in Islamabad Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin) AFGHAN MILITANTS LINKED TO DRUGS TRADE The head of US-led coalition forces in Afghanistan yesterday admitted there were growing signs of links between Muslim terrorist groups and the drugs trade in Afghanistan. David Barno, commanding general, said the number of incidents where counter terrorist operations uncover illegal drugs had increased in recent months. His comments signal a growing readiness among senior US military officials to link terrorist groups to a booming opium industry Afghanistan. It is the world's leading source of poppies used to make opium and heroin. Much of the heroin sold in western countries originates in Afghanistan. Poppy production has increased since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. US officials told the Financial Times this week they feared that Afghanistan may produce its largest poppy harvest this year. The Afghan government and the United Nations have expressed growing alarm over the past year about the nexus between militant groups' financing and opium profits, but until recently US military officials said they had little solid evidence. Western officials familiar with US military policy said the Pentagon was unwilling to be drawn into the war on drugs or confront provincial militiamen on whom the coalition relies for operational support. Gen Barno said it was too early to identify a trend but acknowledged that "we are encountering more occasions where, during the conduct of counter terrorist operations, we uncover drugs or some relationship to drug activities". A counter-terrorism raid "two or three weeks ago" in Uruzgan province, a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, had led to a firefight and the discovery of poppy paste that, had it been converted to heroin, would have had a street value of $15m (UKP18m), Gen Barno told journalists in Berlin. Gen Barno was speaking a day after the international Afghanistan conference in Berlin pledged to clamp down more intensively on poppy producers and traders. The Afghan government and its foreign allies have struggled to formulate a coherent policy for combating the opium industry, wary of using strong-arm tactics against a population with few economic alternatives. The US last month announced support for Afghan teams attached to the interior ministry in Kabul that aim to destroy poppy fields. The move stirred tensions with the British government, which formally has the lead role in helping Afghanistan tackle the drugs trade. - --- MAP posted-by: Terry Liittschwager