UN DRUGS TEAM ON AFGHAN VISIT

The Taleban Have Banned Poppy Cultivation

An international anti-drugs team has gone to Afghanistan to assess claims
by the ruling Taleban to have wiped out opium poppy cultivation.

Afghanistan has been among the world's biggest poppy producers.

The survey will be the first time British officials have officially visited
Afghanistan since American missile strikes on alleged terrorist training
camps in the country in August 1998.

United States officials made their first visit earlier this month as part
of a humanitarian effort.

The team from the UN Office for Drug Control includes Spanish, Belgian and
Dutch representatives, as well as American and British officials.

Antipathy To West

But the Americans and British have borne the brunt of angry local reaction
to the missile attacks, which the Americans say were against camps run by
the Saudi-born Islamic militant, Osama bin Laden.

International sanctions on Afghanistan, which followed, further soured the
Taleban government's relations with the West.

The Taleban are not getting the international help they need with one of
the country's worst droughts in years.

And the West was unable to exercise any influence as the Taleban blew up
Afghanistan's historic giant Buddhist statues.

So now there are signs of confidence-building measures.

The Taleban have been demanding Western recognition of the effectiveness of
their latest ban on opium poppy cultivation, deemed to be contrary to Islam.

Falling Output

There is no doubt the team will be able to praise the Taleban - opium
output has dropped dramatically.

But that may not be entirely because of the ban.

Earlier banning orders were not uniformly observed.

A host of other factors must be considered behind the success this time,
including the fact poppies do not grow well during drought.

Poppy production provides much-needed livelihoods, but there is a more
hardy alternative cash-crop, wheat.

The best test of success will be when the drought's over.