Opium Trade Flourishing In The 'New' Afghanistan

Opium Trade Flourishing In The 'New' Afghanistan

Reuters
March 3, 2002

WASHINGTON - The opium trade is flourishing in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban and the U.S. government said on Friday it is unclear whether the new government can persuade local leaders to stop it.

In its annual report on the international drug trade, the State Department said the Taliban, driven out of power by the U.S. military last year, virtually eliminated opium poppy cultivation in the regions under their control.

Overall opium production fell dramatically, to about 74 tons in 2001 from about 3,656 tons in 2000 and almost all the production was in parts of Afghanistan held by the Northern Alliance, Washington's ally in the war against the Taliban.

Afghanistan has traditionally been one of the world's major producers of opiates, along with Myanmar, which regained its place as top producer last year because of the Taliban ban.

Opium is the raw material for the opiates heroin and morphine, and Afghanistan has been the major supplier of those drugs to the region and to Western Europe.

The U.S. report, released on Friday, said widespread cultivation of poppies resumed in Afghanistan after the collapse of the Taliban and drug traffickers remained active in Afghanistan and the region.

The interim authority in Kabul, led by Hamid Karzai and backed by the United States, has announced its own ban on growing opium but its writ hardly runs beyond the capital.

LOCAL POWER CENTERS

The report said, "The Authority lacks means to enforce its ban, and it must work with local power centers and the donor community if the ban is actually to be respected."

"It remains uncertain whether the urgings and even the financial support of the international community will be sufficient to eliminate poppy cultivation in Afghanistan quickly. ... In the wake of hostilities, which faction is actually in control in which region varies. Whether factions will follow a ban on poppy cultivation issued by the Interim Authority is uncertain," it added.

The Northern Alliance, which dominates Karzai's government, does not appear to have taken any action against drugs in the parts of the country that it does control, it said. "There have also been recent reports of farmers cultivating a second opium crop in Northern Alliance-controlled areas," it added.

The United States is putting some hope in regional efforts to stop Afghan opiates leaving the country through the Six Plus Two group, which brings together the United States, Russia and Afghanistan's six immediate neighbors.

It said it would work with other donors on a strategy to eliminate production and to develop indigenous law enforcement and judicial systems in Afghanistan.

"In the meantime, narcotics trafficking in the region will continue, despite the best efforts of the Interim Authority and the international community," it added.

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