AFGHAN HEROIN TRADE 'BOOMING'

ISLAMABAD (SANA): Afghanistan's new government is failing to tackle the
cultivation of opium poppies, a BBC investigation has found.

Earlier this year, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw announced that almost a
third of the country's poppy fields had been destroyed.

But BBC Radio 4's Today programme found there was little evidence that the
crops were being eradicated.

And a bumper harvest suggests an increased amount of the drug on its way to
the UK, where 90% of heroin originates in Afghanistan.Mr Straw has
congratulated the interim government on its opium eradication scheme which
he said would help stem the flow of heroin into the UK.

Eradication teams go to the farms armed with sticks to destroy the opium crops.

They give farmers $350 US for about one-fifth of a hectare of poppy.

Javed Akmed is a member of the security forces and was assigned to one of
the eradication teams.

He told Today: "They came here and made themselves look busy, but it didn't
look like many people were taking the task seriously."