Pubdate: Tue, 26 Feb 2002
Source: Financial Times (UK)
Section: Asia Pacific
Copyright: The Financial Times Limited 2002
Contact:  http://www.ft.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/154
Author: Richard Wolffe

US MAY PAY FOR OPIUM CROP DESTRUCTION

The US is attempting to lead an international effort to pay Afghan farmers 
to plough under this year's opium poppy crop, which is expected to be 
harvested at the end of next month.

The State Department said it was working with the international community 
of aid donors to Afghanistan to examine ways to pay farmers to destroy 
their own crops, as an alternative to buying the opium poppy harvest outright.

Rand Beers, assistant secretary of state for international narcotics and 
law enforcement, said the administration was also hoping to use local and 
US forces to block the drugs trade.

But in a briefing with reporters, he conceded that Helmand, the largest 
opium-producing region of Afghanistan, was not yet secured by either 
official Afghan or US forces.

"With respect to enforcement activities, there aren't much, if any, in 
terms of the central government," he said. "There are some enforcement 
forces that are local."

Under the Taliban regime, Afghanistan produced more than 70 per cent of the 
world's heroin - a market share that did not decline with the Taliban's ban 
on poppy farming two years ago. The new Afghan government led by Hamid 
Karzai has also banned opium production.

President George W. Bush on Monday granted Afghanistan a waiver from a 
drugs blacklist to allow the country to continue receiving US aid.
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