OPIUM HARVEST AT RECORD LEVEL

Increase in Cultivation Blamed on Economy Wracked by Violence

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's world-leading opium cultivation
rose a "staggering" 60 percent this year, the U.N. anti-drugs chief
announced Saturday in urging the government to crack down on big
traffickers and remove corrupt officials.

The record crop yielded 6,100 tons of opium, or enough to make 610
tons of heroin -- outstripping the demand of the world's heroin users
by a third, according to U.N. figures.

Officials warned that the illicit trade is undermining the Afghan
government, which is under attack by Islamic militants driven from
power by a U.S.-led offensive in late 2001 for harboring Osama bin
Laden and al-Qaida bases. "The news is very bad. On the opium front
today in some of the provinces of Afghanistan, we face a state of
emergency," Antonio Maria Costa, chief of the U.N. Office on Drugs and
Crime, said at a news conference. "In the southern provinces, the
situation is out of control." He talked with reporters after
presenting results of the U.N. survey to Afghan President Hamid
Karzai, who voiced "disappointment" over the figures. "Our efforts to
fight narcotics have proved inadequate," Karzai said in a statement.
With the economy struggling, there are not enough jobs, and many
Afghans say they have to grow opium poppies to feed their families.
The trade already accounts for at least 35 percent of Afghanistan's
economy, financing Taliban warlords and insurgents.

The top U.S. narcotics official here said the opium trade is a threat
to the country's fledgling democracy.

"This country could be taken down by this whole drugs problem," Doug
Wankel told reporters. "We have seen what can come from Afghanistan,
if you go back to 9-11. Obviously the U.S. does not want to see that
again." The bulk of the opium increase was in lawless Helmand
province, where cultivation rose 162 percent and accounted for 42
percent of the Afghan crop. The province has been wracked by the surge
in attacks by Taliban-led militants that has produced the worst
fighting in five years. Costa urged the arrest of "serious drug
traffickers" to fill a new high-security wing for narcotics convicts
at Kabul's Policharki prison. "It has 100 beds. We want these beds to
be taken up in the next few months," he said. In an indication of the
alarming extent of official complicity in the trade, a Western
counternarcotics official said 25,000 to 30,000 acres of government
land in Helmand was used to cultivate opium poppies this year. The
official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the
issue, said police and government officials are involved in
cultivating poppies, providing protection for growers or taking bribes
to ensure the crops aren't destroyed.