TALIBAN'S CONTROL OVER AFGHANISTAN BOOSTS OPIUM TRADE

Poppy cultivation and opium and heroin production have skyrocketed in
Afghanistan since the radical Muslim Taliban movement extended its control
across most of the country, according to U.S. anti-drug experts and
international relief organizations.

U.S. and international drug experts estimate Afghanistan is the
second-largest opium producer in the world and is responsible for the
production of more than one-third of the world's opium and heroin, which is
refined from opium. The Taliban control 96 percent of Afghanistan's
poppy-growing regions, the sources said, and reaps profits by taxing poppy
growers and those who refine poppies into opium.

"The Taliban tax opium, they tax morphine, and they levy fees on
transport," said a senior U.S. official monitoring Afghanistan. "They reap
tens of millions of dollars a year from the drug trade, even though they
initially said they were against it."

The Taliban's alleged involvement in the drug trade would appear to
contradict the strict rules it has imposed on Afghans in keeping with its
interpretation of Islam. Taliban leaders have denied any connection with
drug trafficking and have maintained they will eradicate opium poppy crops
once they have established order in the fractious country and can persuade
poppy growers that they can grow other crops profitably.

Besides causing tension with the West, the increase in drug trafficking
involving Afghanistan is a growing irritant for neighboring Iran, which
opposed the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan.

U.S. officials said that as Iran has softened its stance toward the West,
it has begun to take drug interdiction more seriously.

The State Department report said poppy production has increased
dramatically in Kandahar province, which is both the heartland of the
Taliban movement and the base of operations for Osama bin Laden, the
radical Saudi exile whom U.S. officials accuse of running one of the
largest terrorist networks in the world.

U.S. intelligence agencies have received "credible reports" that members of
bin Laden's security forces protect drug shipments and might have traded
guns for drugs on a small scale, U.S. officials said.

"(The poppy) is grown and marketed in areas where he exercises great
influence, and he has done nothing to stop it," a U.S. drug expert said.
"But there is no smoking gun linking him to the trade directly."

The Taliban last week offered to stop growing the poppies in exchange for
recognition as the government of the country.

"If the Islamic Emirate (Taliban) is accorded recognition without condition
by the U.N, the Emirate will seriously ban unconditionally cultiviation of
poppy throughout the country," Mullah Mohammed Omar, the supreme leader of
the Islamic militia, was quoted on the radio as saying to the Taliban's
Bakhtar news agency.

"As it is now the poppy cultivation (sowing) season, if the world is honest
and sincere in its word, we are also ready to carry out this measure," Omar
said.

Only Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates recognize the
Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.

According to estimates derived from CIA satellite photography, poppy
cultivation in Afghanistan grew from 49,500 acres in 1992 to 99,200 acres
at the end of 1997.

The Cooperative Center for Afghanistan, a Pakistan-based, nonprofit
investigative group, said a recent survey conducted in Afghanistan showed
that the Taliban charges local poppy farmers about $48 per kilogram (2.2
pounds) of opium produced. The opium is sold to traffickers who move it to
Pakistan, Iran and India for about $87 per kilogram.

Checked-by: Joel W. Johnson