AFGHAN HEROIN FEEDS ADDICTION IN REGION, U.N. REPORT DECLARES

UNITED NATIONS, Feb. 29 - The United Nations Drug Control Program says in a
report made public today that Afghanistan is now not only the largest
producer of opium but is also becoming a major manufacturer of heroin,
which is contributing to a rise in addiction throughout the region.

The report, prepared for a meeting here on Monday of Afghanistan's six
neighbors plus the United States and Russia, says that Pakistan and Iran
now have some of the world's highest rates of addiction to heroin, which is
derived from opium. "Central Asian countries show alarming signs of
fast-increasing abuse rates," it says.

Afghanistan is encircled by Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan and a far-western corridor of China.

"The number of heroin addicts in the region exceeds that of Western Europe
and is still on the increase," says the report, prepared by Pino Arlacchi,
executive director of the United Nations office for drug control and crime
prevention. The report adds that communities of addicts in the region are
seen as easy targets for organized crime and vectors for the spread of AIDS.

The report says that there is no evidence to support charges that drug
profits are going either to leaders of the Taliban, who control most of
Afghanistan, or to the Northern Alliance, the remains of the former
government. Both forces impose taxes on traders, however, with the Taliban
earning $10 million to $30 million a year, according to varying estimates,
the report says. It says no estimates are available of the alliance's
earnings from this source.

As a country, the report says, Afghanistan receives only about 1 percent of
the global profits of the opium and heroin originating there. Poor farmers
with no other easy way to earn an income do most of the cultivation,
turning over crops to local traders.

The United Nations report links the increase in narcotics production in
Afghanistan with the economic, political and social collapse caused by
decades of civil war.

"Like viruses thrive best in frail bodies," it says, "illicit drugs prosper
best in regions that are in internal turmoil with weak or nonexistent
government structures and controls." Taliban leaders say that until they
get help in building an economy, they cannot ask farmers to forgo the only
income they have.