AFGHAN PROVINCE TO PROVIDE ONE-THIRD OF WORLD'S HEROIN

Photo: A British patrol passes opium poppies in the Helmand province
of southern Afghanistan. Photo: John Moore/Getty

The Afghanistan province being patrolled by British troops will
produce at least a third of the world's heroin this year, according
to drug experts who are forecasting a record harvest that will be an
embarrassment for the western-funded war on narcotics.

British officials are bracing themselves for the result of an annual
UN poppy survey due later this summer. Early indications show an
increase on Helmand's 1999 record of 45,000 hectares (112,500 acres)
and a near-doubling of last year's crop.

"It's going to be massive," said one British drugs official. "My
guess is it's going to be the biggest ever."

Helmand's bumper harvest highlights the failure of western
counter-narcotics efforts that have cost at least $2bn (UKP1.1bn)
since 2001. It could undo progress made last year, when poppy
cultivation dropped 21% after a call for a "jihad" on drugs by the
Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.

It spells particularly bad news for Britain, which is leading the
anti-narcotics campaign and has deployed 3,300 soldiers to the
lawless province. Afghanistan produces almost 90% of the world's
heroin, with about a third coming from Helmand. Drug experts say the
province is as central to Afghanistan's illegal economy as California
is to America's legal one. "If you took Helmand out of the picture,
Afghanistan would fall from the world's top poppy grower to second or
third place," said one US official.

British and American officials cannot resort to the tactics of the
Taliban, which slashed poppy cultivation in 2001 by threatening to
shoot farmers. But western efforts using less violent methods, such
as encouraging farmers to grow legal crops, have proved fruitless.

The smuggling kingpins who control the UKP1.5bn trade have become
rich, powerful and apparently untouchable. "Until Karzai arrests and
jails one big dealer, people will not believe the central government
is behind this drive," said a former American anti-narcotics contractor.

The most damaging allegations surround the minister charged with
counter-narcotics, Muhammad Daud. Several western officials claim
General Daud, a former Tajik warlord, has historical and family links
to smuggling.

He denies the allegations. "It is very shameful for a big country
with such a good reputation to make allegations like this," he said.

American congressmen are increasing the pressure to start poppy
eradication with crop-spraying planes - a controversial tactic
opposed by British and Afghan officials, who say it would be
disastrous. "It could drive farmers into the hands of the
insurgents," said one.

Britain's main enemy, the Taliban, has developed close links to drugs
smugglers. On Sunday a British soldier, named as Captain Jim
Philippson, became the first combat fatality in Helmand after a
battle with suspected Taliban forces.