AFGHAN GOVT BURNS TONS OF HASHISH

KABUL, Afghanistan -- Afghanistan's interior minister set fire Wednesday to
5,500 pounds of hashish and raw opium seized in the capital, saying the act
symbolized the rescue of thousands of lives.

The public display in a soccer field near Kabul Stadium was part of
government efforts to crack down on illegal drug production, consumption
and smuggling.

Although opium production has repeatedly been banned by authorities,
Afghanistan in recent years has become the world's largest producer of the
raw material for heroin. Hashish is also easily available in the country.

"By burning these drugs, we'll rescue the lives of thousands of our people
in our country and in other countries as well," Interior Minister Taj
Mohammed Wardak said.

The former Taliban government banned opium poppy cultivation in 2000, but
Afghan farmers began to plant the crop again after the Taliban were ousted
late last year in a U.S.-led war.

The government of President Hamid Karzai began a nationwide eradication
program in April, offering farmers cash for destroying poppy fields.

But U.N. experts said in August that the Karzai government had "largely
failed" in its efforts to destroy the crop.

The pile of drugs that was doused with gasoline and set ablaze Wednesday
included rectangular blocks of hashish and clear plastic bags of gooey raw
opium. Also thrown in were 94 bottles of Russian vodka. Alcohol is outlawed
in Afghanistan in accordance with Muslim prohibitions.

Mohammed said it was the fourth time authorities had burned such stockpiles.

Abdul Ghafar Sayedzada, head of the Interior Ministry's anti-drug
department, said 11 people were arrested in the last six weeks in
connection with the drugs burned Wednesday.

Sayedzada said those arrested planned to smuggle the drugs across the
border to Iran and then into Turkey.

"If we find farmers cultivating poppies, we'll put them in jail and destroy
their fields," Sayedzada said.

In April, the government offered farmers $500 per acre of destroyed poppy
fields. The United Nations estimates farmers can earn as much as $6,400 per
acre by growing the illegal crop.