AFGHANISTAN'S COMING UP POPPIES, SAYS UN

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan

Taking advantage of the American attacks on the Taliban, Afghanistan's
farmers are ignoring the strict no-poppy law and are beginning to plant the
seeds of next year's opium crop, according to UN monitors.

Bernard Frahi, the director of the UN International Drug Control Program,
said his observers in Afghanistan had spotted farmers preparing fields in
at least four provinces this week. Opium crops were banned last year as
un-Islamic by Taliban ruler Mullah Mohammed Omar.

"Planting began yesterday," said Frahi, 43, a French narcotics specialist
who has monitored Afghanistan for three years.

A recent program survey of farmlands in Afghanistan showed that the
Taliban's ban on opium crops had reduced the country's output by more than
90%. Frahi said the UN-Taliban cooperation on anti-drug education and crop
substitution had been "one of the most remarkable successes ever" in the UN
drug fight.

But all that changed after the U.S. bombing began Oct. 7, he said.

Now, Frahi said, after more than a week of bombing, Afghanistan is
experiencing ideal conditions for clandestine drug production: "Chaos, a
collapse of law and order, poverty and an economy devastated by war."

The Taliban are busy defending themselves from attack, and, "in the absence
of any pressure from the Taliban, farmers will definitely resume
cultivation" of the poppies, Frahi said.

The program report said Afghanistan produced 185 tons of raw opium in 2001,
down from 3,276 tons the year before.

In the northern province of Badakhshan, which is not controlled by the
Taliban, production more than doubled, according to the same report, and
continued to be cultivated in the areas controlled by the opposition
Northern Alliance.

The opium crops planted this month will be harvested in April and May,
Frahi said.