Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jul 2007
Source: Charlotte Observer (NC)
Copyright: 2007 The Charlotte Observer
Contact:  http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/78
Author: Jason Straziuso, Associated Press
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

AFGHAN MINISTER RESIGNS AFTER BIG POPPY HARVEST

Last Year's Crop Accounted For 90% Of World's Heroin Supply

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's counternarcotics minister has 
resigned only weeks after Afghan laborers finished cultivating an 
opium poppy crop that could exceed last year's record haul.

Habibullah Qaderi's resignation, confirmed by a deputy minister 
Sunday, came as U.S. and Afghan officials debate privately whether to 
use herbicides to reduce the drug problem.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai rejected that approach for the 2007 
growing season, partly because some Afghans fear the chemicals could 
affect livestock, legitimate crops and drinking water, fears the U.S. 
says are unfounded. Much of the profit from the country's $3.1 
billion drug trade is thought to fund the Taliban's campaign against 
the government. Officials said Sunday recent clashes between police 
and insurgents left 11 suspected militants dead in the south, while 
Taliban fighters ambushed police in Kandahar province, wounding 15 officers.

Qaderi submitted his resignation to the president about five days 
ago, said Gen. Khodaidad, the deputy minister. The resignation was 
voluntary and driven in part by health problems, he said, though 
Qaderi has taken a new position in Canada as Afghanistan's consulate 
general. Karzai has not named a replacement.

Qaderi headed the ministry since December 2004 and survived several 
Cabinet shuffles, but Afghanistan's poppy crop has ballooned under 
his watch and the country's production last year accounted for more 
than 90 percent of the world's heroin supply. Western and U.N. 
officials have said this year's harvest could equal or exceed last 
year's record crop. The U.S. has proposed spraying the crops with 
herbicide as it does with coca plants in Colombia, where the current 
U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, William Wood, previously served. 
Britain, whose troops are in charge of Helmand province, the world's 
largest poppy growing region, has said it would support limited spraying.
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