TALIBAN SEEMS READY TO CURB OPIUM PRODUCTION

With 4,600 tonnes produced last year, Afghanistan is the world's biggest
producer of opium, the raw material for the heroin which ends up on the
streets of Dublin and other Irish cities. But now, David Orr reports from
Jelalabad, the Taliban authorities are finally beginning a crackdown

AFGHANISTAN: Momin Raheem has been working overtime to complete the opium
harvest this year. Early in the morning and late in the afternoon he has
been outdoors with one or more labourers, lancing poppy pods and collecting
the gummy sap which they produce.

"I know the Taliban have been destroying poppy fields around here", says Mr
Raheem, who tends a plot of poppies near the southern Afghan city of
Jelalabad. "I expect they'll destroy this one too before long". Men such as
Mr Raheem, who works as a labourer, and the field's owner, who like many
exiled Afghans lives in Pakistan, will now have to consider new forms of
livelihood for next year.

All along the road leading into Jelalabad is evidence of the Taliban
authorities' resolve to reduce opium cultivation: fields of poppies
flattened by bulldozers.

For the first time since the Taliban consolidated its hold on Afghanistan in
1996, there are signs that the Islamic fundamentalist regime is paying more
than lip service to the notion of drug control.

This development is being greeted with cautious enthusiasm by international
anti-drugs agencies.

Concern has been widespread following the announcement that Afghanistan
produced 4,600 tonnes of opium in 1999 - more than twice as much as the
previous year and three times more than the rest of the world put together.

Some analysts feared that output would continue to spiral and that little
could be done to bring the Taliban to book.

The move against opium derives from a decree issued by Taliban leader Mullah
Mohammed Omar last September ordering a one-third reduction in cultivation
of the crop this year. Such edicts have been issued in the past, but now the
order is being acted upon.

Why the authorities should be destroying some fields and not others is
unclear. And, around Jelalabad, only those plots beside the road are being
cleared. But, however limited it may be, an opium eradication campaign is in
progress.

In some areas, farmers have been ordered to reduce their opium crop to a
maximum of one field. Near the Taliban's headquarters in Kandahar recently,
a huge stash of heroin and hashish was set alight as an Islamic cleric
chanted verses from the Koran.

"Some elements in the Taliban are making an effort to reduce opium
cultivation, that is clear, and we are getting their co-operation", said Mr
Claude Drouot of the UN Drugs Control Programme (UNDCP) in Jelalabad. "But
there are different groups within the Taliban so you cannot say they all
have the same view".

Many have wondered why the hardline Taliban, which advocates a particularly
strict interpretation of the Koran, should demonstrate an ambiguous attitude
to opium. Intoxicants, whether they be alcohol, hashish or heroin, are
forbidden by Islam.

It is significant that Afghanistan's opium is consumed not within its
borders but in distant lands, more often than not by "infidel" Westerners.

There have even been suggestions that the fiercely anti-Western Taliban is
ready to use opium as another weapon in its crusade to undermine countries
such as the US and Britain, which it views as decadent and "imperialist".

While there is no evidence to prove the Taliban is directly involved in the
drugs trade, neither is it a totally disinterested party.

The Taliban stands to gain from opium production by way of a 10 per cent
tax, or "ushr". According to some assessments, production and transportation
taxes on this cash-rich crop yield between $10 million and $20 million per
annum.

Another crucial factor in determining the Taliban's stand on opium is its
fear of alienating their support base in rural areas.

While it can rely on the goodwill of the southern, Pashtospeaking population
from which it sprang in 1994, it can be less certain of the backing of the
multitude of ethnic groups which dominate the north. A total clampdown on
opium production would almost certainly provoke widespread rebellion against
a regime which is already overstreched in its war against opposition forces
in the north-east.

Many farmers say they do not like growing poppy but have little option in an
economy which has been shattered by decades of war.

Poppy grows faster, produces more profit and is easier to sell than most
other crops. It is also a source of credit, enabling poor peasants to get
cash in advance for their product. With this they can buy not just food but
also medicines and other essentials.

The Taliban's move against opium is increasingly being seen as an indication
of their readiness to court the international community.

Recognised by only three countries (Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates) and subject to economic sanctions for its refusal to
surrender alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden, the Taliban has few
other bargaining tools at its disposal.

"Some people are asking if their anti-drugs rhetoric is just for show", says
Mr Drouot. "But I'm inclined to take the optimistic view. Otherwise, what is
the point of our work?"

Only the results of the UN's annual opium survey, due out in September, will
tell how rigorously Mullah Omar's decree is being enforced and whether the
Taliban is serious about eradicating the world's largest single source of
opium.