Pubdate: Thu, 21 Sep 2000
Source: San Diego Union Tribune (CA)
Copyright: 2000 Union-Tribune Publishing Co.
Contact:  PO Box 120191, San Diego, CA, 92112-0191
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Author: Christopher S. Wren,  New York Times News Service

UNITED NATIONS ENDS BID TO HALT AFGHAN FARMERS' OPIUM-GROWING

UNITED NATIONS -- Frustrated by declining support from Western donors and 
the indifference of the ruling Taliban, the United Nations is winding down 
efforts to persuade farmers in Afghanistan, the world's largest producer of 
opium, to switch to alternative, legal crops.

Ghorak, Khakrez and Maiwand -- three districts of Qandahar province where 
the United Nations set up pilot programs promoting alternative crops -- 
have recorded decreases in poppy cultivation of at least 50 percent, 
according to the latest annual survey of the U.N. International Drug 
Control Program.

"This demonstrates that the alternative development projects work very 
well," said the program's executive director, Undersecretary-General Pino 
Arlacchi.

Similar programs in Bolivia and Peru, he noted, led to sharp declines in 
the cultivation of coca, the plant used to make cocaine.

But despite U.N. efforts to persuade Afghan farmers to switch to wheat and 
other food crops in return for compensation, Arlacchi said, "Afghanistan 
remains by far the largest opium supplier in the world."

Now, with U.N. funding running out and opium still Afghanistan's leading 
cash crop, the pilot projects will end this year, Arlacchi said, "given 
lack of financial and political support."

Afghanistan's production of opium, the essential raw ingredient of heroin, 
was estimated at just over 3,600 tons this year, a decline from the record 
5,100 tons in 1999.

But the drop was caused mainly by a severe drought in southern Afghanistan, 
not by any effort of the Taliban to make poor farmers grow something other 
than opium poppies.

A previous decree that farmers reduce their areas under opium cultivation 
by one-third has been widely ignored by the farmers and the Taliban 
authorities.

Half of Afghanistan's opium is consumed as heroin by addicts in neighboring 
Pakistan and Iran, Arlacchi said. The rest is smuggled to heroin markets in 
Europe, usually via Turkey and the Balkans.

Afghanistan planted nearly 203,000 acres in opium poppies this year, a 
slight decline from last year, again apparently because of bad weather.

U.N. officials hoped that the drought might encourage some farmers to 
revert to traditional crops. But the poor harvest may leave indebted 
farmers with no choice but to keep raising opium.

Opium growing is encouraged by Afghanistan's rugged, often remote terrain 
and a long-running civil war that has bred lawlessness and defiance of 
authority.

Afghan farmers can earn about $14 per pound of opium, considerably more 
than they do from other crops, U.N. officials say.

Roughly 10 pounds of raw opium is used to produce 1 pound of heroin. At the 
consuming end, the cost of a pound of uncut heroin in Europe or the United 
States can exceed $40,000.

Opium poppies are grown in 22 of Afghanistan's 32 provinces, but six 
provinces in the south account for 92 percent of the opium-producing area. 
Moreover, 97 percent of this land is irrigated, proof that precious water 
is diverted to opium poppies at the expense of other crops.

The Taliban, a militant Islamic movement that fought its way into power, 
controls an estimated 91 percent of the Afghan villages visited by U.N. 
surveyors, compared with 9 percent controlled by opposition forces in the 
north.

And the Taliban's territory contains 96 percent of the country's opium 
poppy fields, up from about 90 percent last year.

Arlacchi visited Afghanistan three years ago and secured assurances of 
cooperation from the Taliban, which considers drug use contrary to Islamic 
precepts, at least in theory. Since then, he said, "There was no 
substantial improvement in our relationship."

The U.N. drug-control office will continue its annual survey of 
Afghanistan's opium cultivation and harvest yield, conducted by Afghan 
nationals who have been able to move about the country and interview opium 
growers and local officials.
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