Pubdate: Wed, 08 Mar 2006
Source: Columbian, The (WA)
Copyright: 2006 The Columbian Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.columbian.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/92
Author: Noor Khan, Associated Press Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

AFGHANS BEGIN POPPY-ERADICATION PROGRAM

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan -- Driving tractors through fields of poppy 
plants, Afghan counternarcotics agents started a major opium 
eradication campaign Wednesday in the heartland of the world's 
largest producer of illicit drugs.

The effort comes amid warnings of another bumper crop that would feed 
millions of heroin addicts in Asia and the West and endanger 
Afghanistan's emerging democracy.

Some 1,000 heavily armed police and soldiers guarded the drug agents 
because Taliban insurgents have threatened to defend the poppy farms, 
said provincial administrator Ghulam Muhiddin.

However, there were no reports of violence as about 100 tractors 
moved across the poppy fields, grinding up the young plants in 
southern Helmand province's Dishu district, he said.

The eradication, part of a U.S.- and British-funded initiative, comes 
two days after the Afghan government and the United Nations warned 
that they expect cultivation of opium poppies to increase across 
large swaths of the country this year.

The government has been criticized for not being tough enough on the 
drug trade. Counternarcotics Minister Habibullah Qaderi has even 
accused senior government officials of involvement.

Afghanistan is the source of nearly 90 percent of the world's opium 
and heroin, even though the international community has pumped 
hundreds of millions of dollars into fighting the trade since the 
Taliban regime was ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

When the Taliban ran Afghanistan, its leader banned poppy growing, 
and cultivation dropped to practically nothing in 2000.

But Afghan and Western counternarcotics officials say the Taliban 
militia fighting the U.S.-backed government is now implicated in the 
drug trade, and uses the proceeds to help fund its insurgency.

Poppy eradication started in Kandahar province two weeks ago. About a 
quarter of Afghanistan's opium is produced in Helmand, more than 
double the amount of any other province.

"We have started in Dishu and we will work our way up from the south 
of Helmand to the north, destroying poppies in every district and 
village," Muhiddin said.

Nationwide, Afghan authorities plan to destroy 50,000 acres of poppy 
fields. Last year, opium was harvested from about 257,000 acres, 
yielding more than 4,500 tons of opium.

A Western diplomat said that for Afghanistan to avoid becoming a 
narco-state, it needs not only to sustain the eradication program, 
but to crack down on mid- and high-level traffickers and corruption. 
He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The diplomat said wiping out poppy fields in Helmand was the key to 
controlling opium production in the country.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has earmarked $146 
million this year for economic development and export-oriented 
farming projects meant to wean Afghans from the crop.

The U.S. funds are being used to provide farmers with alternative 
crops and livelihoods, such as fruit orchards and vegetable gardens, 
and to build roads and other infrastructure needed for a strong rural economy.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman