- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- LOCAL POWER CENTERS
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- 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."
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- "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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- "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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