POPPY IN AFGHANISTAN

UN estimates 3000 tons of opium produce

DUSHANBE (APP): The UN estimates that up to 3,000 tonnes of opium will be
reaped in Afghanistan's spring harvest, the UN's spokeswoman Antonella
Deledda told reporters.This would still be a far cry from Afghanistan's
record harvest of 1999, when the reapings topped 4,600 tonnes and made the
Central Asian state the world's top producer of opium and heroin.

However, until Afghan peasants have alternative ways to feed off their
land, the massive production of drugs will continue, Deledda said.

Much of the Afghan output heads for western European and Russian markets
via a drug route through the former Soviet republic of Tajikistan.

This year, Tajik authorities and Russian border guards have confiscated 1.5
tonnes of drugs including over a tonne of heroin, and arrested 500 people
for trafficking or possession.

Some 11,000 Russian guards patrol the 1,200-kilometre (750-mile)
Tajik-Afghan border under a 1992 agreement signed by Moscow and Dushanbe.