BLOC WANTS RETHINK ON AFGHAN POPPIES

New Strategy For Opium Farmers Necessary For Support Of Mission, Duceppe Warns

MONTREAL -- The Canadian government has to work on an international
strategy to purchase poppy crops from farmers in Afghanistan in order
to stop the heroin trade and end the fighting in the war-ravaged
country, Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe said yesterday.

In a speech in Montreal, Mr. Duceppe said a new strategy on opium is
mandatory if the Canadian government wishes to continue enjoying the
Bloc's support for the military mission in Afghanistan.

He said 80 per cent of Afghans live off agriculture, and a strategy
has to be put in place to replace opium production with legal crops.

"For a transition period, we have to purchase the poppy crops
directly from farmers and use it for medical purposes, to produce
codeine or morphine," Mr. Duceppe said. Prime Minister Stephen
Harper, he added, "can only count on the Bloc's support if he firmly
moves in the direction that I have laid out."

The Department of Foreign Affairs was asked yesterday for its current
position on the eradication of poppy crops, and had not responded by
the end of the day.

Mr. Duceppe used his speech to further explain his party's position
on Afghanistan, which he said could eventually lead to the tabling of
a no-confidence motion against the government.

In addition to a new opium strategy, he called for increased
humanitarian action and a less aggressive strategy on the part of
Canadian troops based in Kandahar. He said the government has so far
spent $1.8-billion on military efforts in Afghanistan, and only
$300-million on humanitarian aid.

"The government has to explain to the population that if we are in
Afghanistan, it's not to serve American interests or wage war.
Afghanistan is not Iraq, and Afghanistan cannot become another Iraq,"
Mr. Duceppe said.

He offered his support to the Canadian troops serving in Afghanistan.
Starting this summer, the major deployment will come from the
Canadian Forces base in Valcartier, Que.

Mr. Duceppe said the mission remains a "noble" cause. But the
situation is not improving, he added, and changes must be made.

The current federal approach is too bellicose, he said as he pointed
to recent statements from Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor that
Canadian Forces are in Afghanistan as retribution for al-Qaeda's 2001
attacks against the United States.

"The Harper government seems to think that the world can defeat
terrorism uniquely through force and that the best way to respond to
the attacks of Sept. 11 is with weapons. That is wrong," Mr. Duceppe said.

"The best way to stop terrorism in Afghanistan and elsewhere in the
world is by giving hope to people, not with bombardments."

His previous statements on Afghanistan had been criticized as being
devoid of any details, but foreign-affairs analyst Jocelyn Coulon
praised yesterday's speech for its "clear and coherent vision."

Liberal Leader Stephane Dion and NDP Leader Jack Layton are also set
to make speeches on Afghanistan in Montreal. Mr. Harper has refused.