Pubdate: Sun, 17 Sep 2000
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2000 The New York Times Company
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Author: Christopher S. Wren

U.N. FORSAKES EFFORT TO CURB POPPY GROWTH BY AFGHANS

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 15 - 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 United Nations International Drug 
Control Program.

"This demonstrates that the alternative development projects work very 
well," the program's executive director, Under Secretary General Pino 
Arlacchi, said here. Similar programs in Bolivia and Peru, he noted, led to 
sharp declines there in the cultivation of coca, the plant used to make 
cocaine.

But despite United Nations efforts to convince Afghan farmers to switch to 
wheat and other food crops in return for compensatory improvements in their 
lives, Mr. Arlacchi said, "Afghanistan remains by far the largest opium 
supplier in the world."

Now, with United Nations funding running out and opium still Afghanistan's 
leading cash crop, the pilot projects will end this year, Mr. 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 
and not by any effort by the Taliban to make peasants 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, Mr. Arlacchi said. The rest is smuggled out 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. 
United Nations 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, United Nations officials say. Roughly 10 
pounds of raw opium are 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 6 
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 United 
Nations surveyors, compared with 9 percent controlled by opposition forces 
in the north. But the Taliban's territory contains 96 percent of the 
country's opium poppy fields, up from about 90 percent last year.

Mr. 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 United Nations 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.

The United Nations has also encouraged a cordon by Afghanistan's neighbors 
- - Pakistan, Iran, Tadjikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and China - to 
block or intercept drug smugglers. Russian border guards have been deployed 
along Tadjikistan's porous frontier with Afghanistan. And Iran, which has 
an increasing drug problem, has stationed 20,000 police officers on its 
Afghan border, Mr. Arlacchi said.

He said he believed that alternative development was an ideal solution for 
the world's illegal drug problem. But the "emergency" solution in the 
shorter term, he said, was for Afghanistan's neighbors to strengthen their 
security belt and for Western countries to reduce the demand for heroin.
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart