TALIBAN TO LIFT BAN ON FARMERS GROWING OPIUM IF US ATTACKS

Edict Reverses Policy That Wiped Out Crop

In a dramatic and little-noticed reversal of policy, the Taliban have told
farmers in Afghanistan that they are free to start planting poppy seeds
again if the Americans decide to launch a military attack.

Drug enforcement agencies last night confirmed that they expect to see a
massive resumption of opium cultivation inside Afghanistan, previously the
world's biggest supplier of heroin, in the next few weeks.

The Taliban virtually eradicated Afghanistan's opium crop last season after
an edict by Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban leader.

In July last year he said that growing opium was "un-Islamic" and warned
that anyone caught planting seeds would be severely punished.

Taliban soldiers enforced the ruling two summers ago and made thousands of
villagers across Afghanistan plough up their fields. Earlier this year UN
observers agreed that Afghanistan's opium crop had been completely wiped out.

Last night Bernard Frahi, the head of the UN's drugs control programme
(UNDCP) in Islamabad, confirmed that the price of opium had suddenly
plunged. Existing opium stockpiles had fallen in value because of the
prospect of new cultivation. "Our sources tell us the price has decreased,"
he said.

Farmers were also ready to exploit the fact that no new post-Taliban
administration was likely to be in place in Kabul before next spring. "All
the ingredients for illicit cultivation are there: war, continuing poverty
and a breakdown in law and order. We could see a huge resumption in
cultivation," Mr Frahi said.

The farmers are expected to begin planting poppy seeds in the next few
weeks. The traditional planting season is from mid-October to late November
or early December.

Although opium grows across Afghanistan, the main area of cultivation has
been the fertile Helmand valley in the south, and around Jalalabad in the east.

Opium has flourished in Afghanistan since the time of Alexander the Great,
when it was used as medicine. But under the Taliban production increased
spectacularly, to the point where Afghanistan supplied 80% of Europe's
heroin. In the year before Mullah Omar's edict, some 82,000 hectares of
land were planted with poppy.

Last night one Afghan trader, who had just fled from Afghanistan, said the
price of opium per kilo had now fallen from 50,000 Pakistani rupees (UKP
525) to 10,000 rupees (UKP 105). Everybody was trying to offload existing
stocks, he said.

"Almost all Afghans will be cultivating poppy as it was their only cash
crop. They can't cultivate other crops as the soil is fit only for poppy
cultivation," he claimed.

Mullah Omar's now defunct ruling caused deep resentment among impoverished
Afghans in rural areas, who were forced last year to plant wheat instead.

Previously, farmers with a few acres of land were able to make up to UKP
350 in a good season from growing opium, a small fortune in a country where
the average monthly salary is only UKP 3. The crop is known locally as hashar.

"We don't have anything," Rashid, a farmer in the village of Hadda in
eastern Afghanistan, lamented in March. "All the young people have gone to
Pakistan. Ninety percent of this area used to be cultivated with poppy. How
much money can you make from wheat?"

Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the Taliban's foreign affairs spokesman, complained
earlier this year that the international community had not rewarded
Afghanistan for wiping out opium - an "epic task", he said. "The response
to this tremendous achievement was unexpected. They imposed more and more
sanctions on us," he added.

With Afghanistan's borders now officially closed it is not clear how any
new crop will be shipped out of the country after harvesting early next year.

Most observers, however, believe dealers will make use of existing
smuggling routes, via Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan's lawless northern
neighbours, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

The UNDCP last night said it had lost touch with its local staff inside
Afghanistan following the Taliban's edict to hang anyone found using a
satellite phone.

Taliban officials in Islamabad were unable to confirm that Mullah Omar's
edict had been abandoned.