US FINDINGS BELY UN REPORT ON PAK-AFGHAN DRUGS

NEW DELHI: Till the findings of the US State Department made public on
Saturday, the world was lulled into believing that a severe drought
and publicity campaign by the well-meaning United Nations Drug Control
Programme (UNDCP), combined with a diktat by Taliban supremo Mullah
Omar, had actually led to a sharp fall in the opium production in
Afghanistan last September.

In its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, the
State Department said Afghanistan continued to be the largest opium
producer accounting for 72 per cent of the world's illicit opium
supply despite severe drought conditions in most parts of that country.

Reliable estimates indicate that cultivation has increased by 25 per
cent and potential production reached 3,656 metric tons. Traffickers
of Afghan heroin continued to route most of their production to Europe
and has now targeted the US, the report released in Washington said.

The report makes it clear that Afghanistan's rulers have been using
drug money to finance their weapon purchases and military operations.

The Taliban in July last issued a new ban on poppy cultivation, but it
was not clear how serious their efforts are to enforce the ban, the
report said, adding the announcement of the ban had caused the drug
prices to rise -- a boon for traffickers sitting on large stockpiles.

The UNDCP had earlier reported that the opium production during the
year 2000 was 3275.9 metric tonnes, which was in real terms less than
4,581 MT in 1999. According to UNDCP survey report, farmers from some
7541 villages in 125 districts across the country - mostly under the
Taliban militia - were found involved in poppy cultivation. The
southern Helmand and the eastern Nangrahar provinces accounted for 52
and 24 per cent respectively for the total poppy produce in 2000.

The UNDCP's findings were questioned by experts in India and
elsewhere. India's Narcotics Control Bureau in a report stated that
the findings of the world organisation were based on limited survey
and that the time chosen for it was before the sowing season.

The UNDCP officials withdrew from the poppy-producing centres, by the
year-end, citing fund shortage to continue with the programme. This
prompted the Pakistani journal, The Friday Times, to question its
reason and rationale, arguing that the UNDCP was withdrawing just when
the programme was showing some positive results.

"Initially, we had firm commitments of about $10 million which we have
spent on alternative development, demand reduction and monitoring of
the programme," UNDCP representative for the region, Bernard Frahi
told TFT last April. However, he said that after spending almost 65
per cent of those funds, "we have a shortfall of some $4 million,
which Pino Arlacci, the head of the UNDCP, has not been able to secure
from the donors. Arlacchi tried his best to keep the project running
and even take it beyond June 2001, the stipulated project completion
time."

The State Department report says that while Pakistani opium production
has plummeted, neighbouring Afghanistan has become the world's largest
opium producer. "The tripling of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan
since 1993 and growth in sophistication of the Afghan drug trade are
putting enormous pressure on Pakistan's border control efforts and
Pakistani society," The News reported on Saturday.

Successful interdiction operations occur, but traffickers have
superior firepower and faster vehicles, the territory is enormous, and
law enforcement is widely dispersed, with little rapid mobilisation
airlift capability. The report says: "This means more drugs transiting
Pakistan, a growing addiction problem, and more cash available for
bribery and official corruption." It says Pakistan remains an
important transit country for the precursor chemical acetic anhydride
destined for Afghanistan's heroin laboratories.