Pubdate: Thu, 27 Sep 2001
Source: International Herald-Tribune (France)
Copyright: International Herald Tribune 2001
Contact:  http://www.iht.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/212
Author: Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmitt

TALIBAN'S OPIUM INCOME REMAINS A KEY LIFELINE

WASHINGTON The Taliban government in Afghanistan has earned tens of 
millions of dollars from the export of heroin and other narcotics since it 
proclaimed last year that it was ending opium poppy cultivation, American 
officials say.

Cutting off this important source of revenue is part of the Bush 
administration's economic campaign against the regime, the officials said.

The Taliban won international acclaim in July 2000 when their leaders 
banned the growing of opium poppies, a harvest that many of the nation's 
impoverished farmers had come to count on to feed their families but which 
the regime has also used to raise money.

UN inspectors who have toured the country say that poppy cultivation has, 
in fact, been largely eradicated in areas under the Taliban's control, a 
finding confirmed by American narcotics experts who visited Afghanistan in 
June.

But the Taliban did not outlaw the possession or sale of opium, and the 
existence of stockpiles was known to the United Nations, which noted in a 
report in May that Afghan opium poppy production had leaped to 4,600 tons 
in 1999 from 2,500 tons in 1998, and was 3,100 tons in 2000.

American experts now aiding the Bush administration's effort to muster an 
international coalition against terrorism and the Taliban protectors of 
Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attacks, say that 
enormous quantities of opium and of heroin itself have been hidden around 
the country, and are being sold. Before declaring an end to poppy 
cultivation, Afghanistan produced about 75 percent of the world's supply of 
opium, international narcotics experts said.

"The ban on poppy cultivation has been very effective in Taliban controlled 
areas," one American official said. "But we believe the stockpile from last 
year is still funding the Taliban. Opium and heroin are a major source of 
the Taliban's income."

The Bush administration would now like to cut off that money.

"We will be using all instruments of our power against them, and one major 
area is their finances," a senior Defense Department official said. "Drugs 
are very important to that." Another senior official familiar with the 
military planning said that targeting stockpiles of opium, the raw 
ingredient for heroin, and laboratories was difficult and not a principal 
aim of the military campaign. But he said that Washington had not ruled out 
military force.

"It may be one of the hardest things to go after," he said. "If there is a 
way to do it, we will try. But it might be more efficient to use law 
enforcement and other instruments."

In trying to fight Afghanistan's drug trade, the United States may win new 
cooperation from Iran, Russia and the Central Asian states, which face 
growing problems with addiction and the criminality that comes with 
narcotics smuggling. The Taliban have relied on revenues from the drug 
trade for years and have used the proceeds to buy weapons to fight the 
Northern Alliance, the rebel group estimated to control 5 percent to 15 
percent of Afghanistan's territory.

At first, the Taliban was taxing poppy cultivation and charging fees for 
narcotics production, American officials say. A UN report estimated that 
the Taliban earned $15 million to $27 million from taxes levied on opium 
production, an estimate that did not include any proceeds the Taliban may 
have derived from trading drugs. A U.S. official estimated that the total 
annual revenue was $40 million to $50 million.

Then the Taliban announced an end to opium cultivation. But the narcotics 
trade flourished as drug traffickers exported more opium and heroin.

"The amount of heroin that has been seized has not changed," Mohammed 
Amirkhizi, a senior official at the UN Office of Drug Control and Crime 
Prevention in Vienna, said in a telephone interview.

A former American official said that intelligence experts had never 
established a direct link between the trade and Mr. bin Laden.

Two senior congressional aides with access to intelligence reports said 
that Mr. bin Laden did not actually traffic in drugs, but made money from 
the heroin trade by hiring out his fighters to guard laboratories and to 
escort drug convoys moving through Iran to Turkey.
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