Pubdate: Wed, 31 Aug 2005
Source: Daily Times (Pakistan)
Copyright: 2005 Daily Times
Contact:  http://www.dailytimes.com.pk
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2893
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

AFGHANISTAN PLEDGES TOUGH ACTION AGAINST DRUG TRAFFICKERS

KABUL: Afghanistan on Tuesday pledged tough measures against drug 
traffickers, a day after the United Nations said the country's opium 
production had fallen for the first time since the Taliban.

"The government, in its efforts against drugs, is very serious - whether 
it' s cultivation, processing or trafficking," Karim Rahimi, spokesman for 
President Hamid Karzai, told reporters in Kabul.

The UN's anti-drugs chief said on Monday that opium cultivation and 
production dropped for the first time 2001, with the area used to grow 
poppies plunging 21 percent since 2004 and production edging down by 2.4 
percent.

Afghan officials hailed the reversal as a turning of the tide on drugs - 
which now account for between 40 and 60 percent of the Afghan economy - 
calling the reduction in cultivation "very significant."

Afghanistan hoped to see the downward trend continuing in coming years, 
Rahimi added.

He said authorities would take tougher measures against drug lords and 
added that over 150 people linked to the drugs trade were now in jail 
awaiting trial in a newly established counter-narcotics court. Afghanistan 
remains the world's biggest producer of opium, used to make heroin, 
churning out 87 percent of the global supply.

But news of the fall in opium output boosted optimism ahead of 
parliamentary elections on September 18, seen as a crucial step on the 
country's road to democracy almost four years after the fall of the Taliban 
regime.

"Preparation for the parliamentary elections are under way. So far we've 
not faced any serious problems. The situation is under control," Rahimi said.

"We're confident the process will go ahead successfully," he added, saying 
that the government had drawn up a detailed security plan to deal with 
threats by insurgents to derail polls.

He would not disclose information on the plans.

Meanwhile, a former Afghan government minister running for parliament in 
Sept18 elections says there must be sweeping change to root out corruption 
in government and in Afghanistan's international aid effort.

Ramazan Bashardost, who quit the cabinet last year over the issue, is 
tapping into what some analysts see as a groundswell of frustration in 
Afghanistan over the slow pace of recovery, almost four years after the 
hardline Taliban were forced from power.

"I am against the mafia system," Bashardost told the news agency on Tuesday 
in an interview in a Kabul park, where he has set up his campaign 
headquarters in a tent. Afghanistan is holding parliamentary and provincial 
elections on Sept.18, almost a year after President Hamid Karzai won a 
five-year term.

The elections are the culmination of an international plan to restore 
democracy and stability, drawn up days after the Taliban were ousted.

Bashardost also blames the international community for propping up the 
warlords who battled each other for power during the first half of the 
1990s, indirectly paving the way for the Taliban to take over in 1996.

"The Afghan people are against warlords, why the international community, 
why the Afghan government, supports warlords?"

"In the provinces, all governors are former warlords, all chiefs of police, 
and the Afghan people don't accept this situation."
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