Pubdate: Mon, 18 Feb 2002
Source: Financial Times (UK)
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2002
Contact:  http://www.ft.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/154
Author: John Mason

ASIA-PACIFIC: US AND UN 'IGNORING' MENACE OF DRUGS CULTIVATION

The US and United Nations have ignored repeated calls by the international 
anti-drugs community to address the increasing  menace of Afghanistan's 
opium cultivation, threatening a rift  between Europe and the US as they 
begin to reconstruct the  country.

With the US focused on its anti-terror campaign and the UN  hamstrung by a 
drugs agency discredited by the misallocation of  funds by Pino Arlacchi, 
its former chief, the fight against  Afghanistan's drugs problem was facing 
an uphill battle, diplomats  and anti-drugs officials said.

The UN's international narcotics control board has approached the  UN 
Security Council several times regarding the issue.

"It's not so much a contentious issue but it's just not high on the radar 
screen," one diplomat explained.

European governments believe one of the reasons the US is "out to lunch on 
the issue", as one diplomat put it, is that Afghan heroin is not a 
significant player in the US drugs market, accounting for less than 5 per 
cent of consumption. Colombia, he said, was the focus  of the US anti-drugs 
campaign.

This is in sharp contrast to Europe, where Afghan heroin is  viewed as a 
main source of the region's trade in hard drugs.

The US narcotics division in the State Department has also been sidelined 
in part because of its support for Mr Arlacchi, who was forced to leave UN 
Drug Control Programme at the beginning of the year, leaving behind a 
rudderless and severely weakened organisation.

Adding to the malaise is the difficulty Kofi Annan, the UN secretary- 
general, is having filling Mr Arlacchi's position.

Italy is insisting the post go to its candidate, threatening to 
withhold  funding if Mr Annan chooses from among the other hopefuls, 
who  include an Iranian/British drugs expert and a Portuguese  ambassador.

Intelligence estimates suggest that the current harvest has the potential 
to produce 4,500 tonnes of opium or 450 tonnes of heroin. About 150 tonnes 
of Afghan heroin has been entering the  European market annually - 
equivalent to 95 per cent of the  European heroin trade.

After the last record harvest in 1999-2000, the then Taliban government 
announced that it was freezing further production. However, western 
officials now believe that the Taliban was  simply stockpiling in order to 
stabilise the price of raw opium.

While some of these stocks are thought to have been targeted by  US 
coalition forces, intelligence officials now believe the majority  had 
already been moved out of Afghanistan by the Taliban in the  aftermath of 
September 11.

But the growing insecurity in Afghanistan had slowed development agencies' 
ability to begin crop substitution programmes among  farmers who were about 
to sow next season's poppy harvest,  officials said. Cindy Hamilton-Fazey, 
professor of international drug policy at Liverpool University, said: "With 
a weak government in  Kabul and a US government that is more interested in 
oil and  counterterrorism in the region than drugs, it is inevitable that 
poppy  cultivation is rapidly reasserting itself and that the tribal 
warlords  will try and maximise their revenue from it."

Additional reporting by John Mason

Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 1995-2002

* * *

ASIA-PACIFIC: Afghanistan opium crop threatens Europe

Financial Times; Feb 18, 2002

By JIMMY BURNS and CAROLA HOYOS

Afghan farmers are preparing to harvest a potential bumper opium  crop that 
threatens to fuel the illicit drugs trade in the surrounding region and 
flood Europe with heroin by the end of this year.

According to western intelligence and customs officials, Afghans planted 
vigorously in the autumn in areas liberated from the Taliban and now beyond 
the control of the new administration in Kabul.

British officials believe that unless urgent action is taken militarily to 
back a crop eradication and aid effort in the Helmand and  Nangahar regions 
within the next four weeks, a large opium crop could be ready for harvest 
by June.

The assessment is provoking fresh tension between the US and its European 
allies. British officials - backed by the German, Spanish and Italian 
governments - want a more vigorous logistical support  to be offered to a 
new aid programme in the poppy growing areas  which would include 
construction work and crop substitution.

For the UK, the political stakes are high. Tony Blair, prime minister, 
identified the opportunity for eradicating opium production in Afghanistan 
when justifying British military involvement with the US bombing campaign 
last October.

But now British officials say that such early optimism was  misplaced, with 
the US government showing little interest in  evidence that opium is being 
cultivated. . "The fact is that on the  drugs issue it is showing limited 
interest and partnership," one  official said.

The United Nations security council, of which the US and UK are permanent 
members, together with Russia, China and France, has  not broached the 
subject in earnest, in part because of  Washington's ambivalence.

The UN 's drugs control agency, which had been active in  combating 
Afghanistan's poppy production before September 11,  has been sidelined by 
the misallocation of funds by Pino Arlacchi,  its former head. This left 
Europe without a multilateral avenue to  pursue the problem, diplomats said.

Meanwhile, intelligence estimates suggest that the current harvest has the 
potential to produce 4,500 tonnes of opium or 450 tonnes  of heroin. About 
150 tonnes of Afghan heroin has been entering  the European market annually 
- - equivalent to 95 per cent of the  European heroin trade.

And in Afghanistan, farmers are getting ready to sow the next season's 
poppy crop. "Without a crop substitution programme in  place, you can't 
blame the farmers," said one diplomat.
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