AFGHANISTAN MAKES WEST ASIA HOT SPOT FOR DRUGS

ISLAMABAD, - Increased opium
production in Afghanistan and heroin trafficking has made West Asia
the world's "hot spot" for drugs, a U.N. drug official said on Tuesday.

"1998 has once again confirmed the increasing danger of drugs in the
region," said Bernard Frahi, representative of United Nations
International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP).

"West Asia -- Afghanistan, Pakistan and Central Asia -- remains a hot
spot in the world," he told a news conference in Islamabad that marked
the release of the annual report of the International Narcotics
Control Board (INCB).

He said Afghanistan had overtaken Myanmar as the world's largest
producer of heroin precursor opium and remains a "soft belly" for the
region and a source of enormous drug trafficking.

The INCB report, launched by board Vice-President Dil Jan Khan, said
Afghanistan could now be making all the illegal heroin that formerly
came from Pakistan.

It said a commitment by Afghanistan's purist Islamic Taleban movement
to ban poppy growing and opiate processing in Afghanistan was
questionable.

Frahi said opium production in Afghanistan rose by nine percent in
1998 over 1997. Some 63,000 hectares of poppy fields produced 2,200
tonnes of opium, sufficient to produce 210 tonnes of heroin, he said.

He said UNDCP had been conducting an opium survey in the country since
1994 and last year the Taleban provided security for its survey teams.

"We have set up an excellent dialogue with the Taleban," he said,
adding that the agency was working in four districts to help farmers
reduce poppy cultivation.

But he did not comment on last week's statement from the Taleban that
said they had ordered the destruction of all heroin-manufacturing
factories in areas within its control.

Frahi said Pakistan was a "success story" for the elimination of poppy
cultivation and was on track to completely halt cultivation of the
plant by year 2000.

He said opium production in Pakistan came down from 800 tonnes in 1979
to only 25 tonnes last year, mainly due to a drop in the cultivated
area from 37,000 hectares in 1979 to 2,000 hectares last year.

"In 1999 it is expected to come down to between five and 10 tonnes,"
he said.

Frahi said multilateral funding of $200 million for projects in the
tribal belt of Pakistan helped reduce poppy cultivation in the country.

But he said securing funding for Afghanistan had been difficult and
only $10 million had been contributed by donors.

The Taleban have sought the support of the United Nations and the
world community to provide alternative sources of income for farmers
in Afghanistan.

Frahi expressed concern over a rise in drug addiction in Pakistan
where he estimated there were 3 million addicts, half of them heroin
addicts. He said the agency was conducting a survey to get more
accurate figures.