BORDER PATROLS OUTGUNNED BY SMUGGLERS

Iran patrols its Afghan border with 20,000 soldiers and security agents. Yet
they are often outgunned by the firepower of smugglers who carry tonnes of
opium and heroin across the desert in caravans of camels and
four-wheel-drive vehicles.

The smugglers are armed with machine guns, rocket launchers, anti-aircraft
missiles, satellite telephones and night-vision equipment. They have killed
nearly 3,000 Iranian soldiers and police officers in battles during the past
decade, including 36 police officers who were tortured and killed by
traffickers in November.

There were 1,445 armed confrontations between drug smugglers and Iranian
security forces last year, leaving more than 170 policemen and 740 smugglers
dead. That's in addition to the 4,000 drug smugglers executed by order of
the Iranian justice system in the past decade.

As the drug wars intensify, Iran is guarding its borders with barriers of
barbed-wire fences, concrete walls, trenches and heavily fortified
watchtowers in the remote desert and mountain passes.

Meanwhile, European countries are sending millions of dollars worth of
bulletproof vests and night-vision equipment to Iran to help it secure its
borders.

Almost all of Afghanistan's poppy crop is produced in areas controlled by
the fundamentalist Taliban regime. Taliban leaders acknowledge that opium is
a violation of Islamic rules against intoxicants, but some justify the drug
exports as vengeance against Western "infidels" who refuse to recognize
Taliban sovereignty.

Under heavy pressure from the United Nations, the Taliban ordered a
30-per-cent cut in poppy cultivation this year. It has destroyed dozens of
heroin labs and hundreds of hectares of poppy fields.

But critics say this is just a propaganda show. Drug money has become a key
source of income for the Taliban's war machine, producing as much as
$75-million in annual profits.

Local Taliban authorities impose a 10-per-cent tax on the poppy crop,
encouraging Afghan farmers to believe that opium is acceptable under Islamic
rules.

Even without Taliban approval, many Afghans would be growing opium poppies,
which are four times more profitable than other crops. Poppies are often
cultivated by returning refugees who need money to rebuild their destroyed
houses.