TALIBAN BAN POPPY CULTIVATION

The supreme Taliban leader, Mulla Omar, on Friday ordered a total ban on
poppy cultivation in Afghanistan.

In a statement carried on Taliban-controlled radio, the Taliban leader said
farmers should stop growing poppy in the growing season starting next
spring.

"Anyone resorting to cultivating poppy will be punished by the Islamic
Emirate and their farming destroyed," the radio quoted Omar's order as
saying.

It was the first time the Taliban called for a total ban on the cultivation
of poppy.

Last year, Mulla Omar issued an edict calling for poppy cultivation to be
cut by one-third, but the decree was greeted by scepticism by Western
anti-drug experts.

Before Friday's ban, the Taliban had demanded international assistance for
outlawing poppy growth, saying Afghanistan's wrecked economy had forced poor
farmers to grow the lucrative crop.

In an article published this week in a Kandahar-based magazine, Mulla Omar
was quoted as saying: "As we have only limited means to utilize towards this
end (to eliminate poppy growth), we consider it the responsibility of the
international community to assist us in this matter."