DATE=4/4/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=AFGHAN DRUGS (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260944
BYLINE=AYAZ GUL
DATELINE=JALALABAD, AFGHANISTAN
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Afghanistan's Taleban movement is stepping up
a campaign to reduce the country's production of
opium, which reached a record 46-hundred metric tons
last year. With U-N officials looking on, members of
the Taleban have begun plowing up fields of opium
poppy in eastern Afghanistan's Ningahar province.
Ayaz Gul watched the anti-opium campaign (Tuesday) and
reports now from the provincial capital, Jalalabad.
TEXT: Members of the Taleban say they will spend two
weeks destroying opium-poppy fields, in the hope this
will prompt farmers to switch to alternative crops,
such as wheat or vegetables.
Several tractors and Taleban workers have been engaged
in eradicating poppy plants in fields along the
Jalalabad Highway, part of the main road linking Kabul
and Pakistan.
The red and white poppies are now in bloom, and the
plants are ready for harvest. Dozens of armed Taleban
soldiers are guarding the crop-clearing teams against
any resistance by local farmers. But most people have
just been looking on in silence as the tractors tear
up the fields, crushing the poppy plants. Workers
with sharp sticks follow the tractors, ripping the
poppy plants to pieces.
Six months ago, the Taleban leader, Mullah Mohammed
Omar, ordered Afghan farmers to reduce their poppy
cultivation by one-third. This followed a series of
meetings between officials of the Taleban and the
United Nations Drugs Control Program.
Taleban officials supervising the operation in
Jalalabad say they will reduce by one-third the poppy
fields of all farmers who defied Mullah Omar's order.
Abul Hameed Akhunzada, the head of the Taleban's anti-
drug commission, says 500 hectares of poppy fields
will be destroyed during the operation. This, he
says, will demonstrate that the Taleban is determined
to limit drugs production.
Bernard Frahi, a senior U-N official, says the
Taleban's move toward eradicating poppy cultivation is
an historic moment, and it underscores the group's
willingness to listen to appeals from the world
community.
Taleban official Akhunzada says Afghanistan needs more
help from the outside world to solve its drug-
production problem. He says this war-ravaged
country's precarious economy makes it impossible for
the Taleban to totally ban poppy cultivation.
The hard-line Islamic group controls some 90 percent
of Afghanistan, but neighboring Pakistan, the United
Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are the only three
countries who recognize its rule.
Afghanistan has long been a major source of raw opium,
a highly-addictive drug which in turn can be processed
to yield other narcotics, including heroin. The
Taleban says it is not responsible for Afghanistan's
opium problem, but opium-poppy cultivation here is
said to have increased to record levels since the
Taleban took power in 1996.
According to the most recent United Nations survey,
Afghanistan is now the world's leading producer of
opium. (Signed)
NEB/AG/WTW
04-Apr-2000 15:44 PM EDT (04-Apr-2000 1944 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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