DRUGS AND JEWELS HELP PAY FOR WAR

WAR has been such a constant companion for the residents of Kabul, the
Afghan capital, that word of another major offensive brings little more than
shrugs.

"Even when a rocket hits a civilian area, people disperse for a few minutes,
then return to count bodies and remove the wounded. Life is back to normal
within minutes," said Gull Mohammad, a jewellery maker. Like most
businessmen in the capital, he has little to do these days but sit in his
shop as people pass by without stopping. Few have money to spare on anything
other than the bare essentials. Meanwhile, the sound of guns booming north
of Kabul and Taliban fighter planes striking opposition positions send
residents of nearby villages fleeing for safety.

The Taliban launched an all-out offensive on Wednesday to try to extend its
grip on the remaining 20 per cent of the country not under its control. The
war continues because it is fuelled by outside powers and a criminalised
economy of drug trafficking and smuggling that funds both the Taliban and
the Northern Alliance, led by Ahmed Shah Masood.

In the Helmand valley, in southern Afghanistan, poppy fields producing raw
opium, which is refined into heroin, stretch as far as the horizon. The
Taliban encourages farmers to import fertiliser from Pakistan and rebuild
irrigation networks to treble yields.

The United Nations Drugs Control Programme says Afghanistan produced 2,100
tonnes of opium in 1998, 96 per cent of it grown in Taliban-controlled
areas. Heroin is a major source of income for all the warlords. Farmers pay
a 10 per cent Islamic tax on their crops to local commanders, but that is
collected only intermittently. The Taliban imposes a 20 per cent wealth tax,
or zakat, on dealers and transporters, which goes straight into the Taliban
war chest.

The Northern Alliance, which controls only the north-eastern corner of the
country, imposes a similar tax on opium shipments crossing into Uzbekistan
and Tajikistan. It also taxes exports of emeralds and lapis lazuli gemstones
mined in the north.