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Pubdate: Tue, 28 Aug 2007 Source: New York Times (NY) Copyright: 2007 The New York Times Company Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298 Author: David Rohde Referenced: The UN report http://www.unodc.org/pdf/research/AFG07_ExSum_web.pdf Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Afghanistan Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/poppy+farming SECOND RECORD LEVEL FOR AFGHAN OPIUM CROP KABUL, Afghanistan -- Opium cultivation in Afghanistan grew by 17 percent in 2007, reaching record levels for the second straight year, according to a United Nations report released Monday. Despite a $600 million American counternarcotics effort and an increase in the number of poppy-free provinces to 13 from 6, the report found that the amount of land in Afghanistan used for opium production is now larger than amount of land used for coca cultivation in all of Latin America. Afghanistan now accounts for 93 percent of the world's opium, up from 92 percent last year, the report said. Antonio Maria Costa, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes Policy, which issued the report, called the new figures terrifying. "Afghanistan today is cultivating megacrops of opium," he said at a news conference. "Leaving aside China in the 19th century, no other country has produced so much narcotics in the past 100 years." Mr. Costa described a "divided" Afghanistan, with opium production dropping in the relatively stable north, and growing in the south, the center of an insurgency. There, Taliban militants control large areas and have encouraged farmers to grow opium. Production in the south has also become more sophisticated, with the number of labs processing opium into heroin growing to 50 from 30 in Helmand Province, local officials said. The report is likely to spark renewed debate over an American-backed proposal for the aerial spraying of opium crops with herbicide. Afghan and British officials have opposed aerial spraying, saying it would increase support for the Taliban among farmers who fear the herbicide would poison them and their families. A proposal to carry out pilot programs where herbicide would be sprayed by ground eradication teams is now being considered, according to Western officials. Mr. Costa called for NATO troops to begin playing a more active role in countering trafficking by supporting Afghan counternarcotics operations and providing additional intelligence. He said that after two years of NATO and American officials reacting skeptically to his requests for more military involvement in counternarcotics, there was a growing consensus that the drug trade finances the insurgency. "I am a lot more optimistic," he said. "The perception I have is that our call is not falling any longer on deaf ears." In Helmand Province, which produces more opium than any other country in the world, there are now 7,000 British NATO troops, the largest concentration of foreign forces in Afghanistan. Helmand had a 48 percent increase in opium production in 2007, the report said. The province, which is twice the size of Maryland, produced 53 percent of Afghanistan's opium this year, up from roughly 42 percent last year. The northeastern province of Nangrahar, which had reduced cultivation in recent years, experienced a 285 percent increase in opium cultivation in 2007, the report found. The Southwestern province of Farah, the scene of increased Taliban activity, experienced a 93 percent increase. On the day the report was released, NATO and American officials announced the deaths of five foreign soldiers. Three American soldiers were killed Monday in Kunar in the northeast, American officials said. And officials announced that a NATO soldier was killed Monday in the eastern Afghanistan and a Dutch soldier was killed Sunday in Oruzgan in the south. United Nations officials track opium cultivation through ground surveys and satellite images. The survey found that the number of hectares in Afghanistan cultivated with poppies grew to 193,000 in 2007, from 165,000 in 2006, a 17 percent increase. Favorable weather led to high yields, with the estimated opium produced rising to 9,000 tons in 2007, from 6,700 tons in 2006, a 34 percent increase. The report notes that no large increase in world demand for opium has occurred in recent years and that supply from Afghanistan "exceeds global demand by an enormous margin." It said up to 3,300 tons of opium was being stockpiled in Afghanistan. Terrorist groups could be stockpiling the drug, the report warned. "Opium stockpiles, a notorious store of value, could once again be used to fund international terrorism," it said. Mr. Costa chastised Afghan officials and Western nations for not adding one name to a United Nations Security Council list of major drug traffickers linked to terrorism. The eight-month-old list calls for traffickers to be arrested and their assets seized. Earlier, he said that this year's result suggested greed, not poverty, was driving the opium trade The provinces in the north that cut opium cultivation are relatively poor, he said. Those in the south that increased production, like Helmand, are comparatively wealthy. Over time, he said, opium would also distort the economy of southern Afghanistan. "The longer we let this cancer spread the deeper it's going to get into the economic system," he said. "And the more difficult it's going to be to cut it out." - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake