AFGHAN SHOP OWNERS PROTEST OPIUM RAIDS

GHANI KHIEL, Afghanistan -- Soldiers stormed Afghanistan's biggest drug
market, seizing more than 6 tons of opium.

The raid this week showed the interim government's resolve to wipe out the
lucrative opium trade that resumed with the fall of the Taliban. But
shopkeepers said the soldiers appeared more like a thieving party, ripping
the watches off the wrists of store owners, pulling money from their
pockets and taking everything in the shops -- as well as the opium.

"They weren't interested in destroying our opium. They took our opium to
sell," said Javed Khan, a store owner.

Now residents of Ghani Khiel, 36 miles east of the provincial capital of
Jalalabad, are fighting mad -- and heavily armed.

"We're ready to shed blood over this," Khan said.

Yesterday, a rocket launcher was pointed toward the village entrance.
Residents warned that they were ready to do battle with the government if a
settlement is not brokered by their elders. Negotiations won't be easy.
Fifty residents are in jail, and the entire village is up in arms.

The elders sat in a stark white concrete building; outside, their heavily
armed bodyguards railed against Haji Abdul Qadir, the interim regime's
governor of the eastern province of Nangarhar.

When the opium market flourished, shopkeepers in Ghani Khiel had a routine.
They sat in their dusty courtyards on rope beds, sipping tea and waiting
for customers.

Yesterday, they gathered as usual, but their shops were shuttered and their
mutterings were angry. They accused Qadir of sending soldiers into Ghani
Kiel because most residents are loyal to a rival warlord, Haji Zaman Khan.

At the entrance to Ghani Khiel, a graffiti-scarred board put up by the
deposed Taliban still sits slightly lopsided. It reads: "Drug abuse is the
greatest evil of our society. Let us save our lives, save our children's
lives." But inside Ghani Khiel's opium market, store owners say they aren't
ready to change.

"When they give us roads, schools, hospitals and something that brings us
as much money, we will stop selling it," said Gul Ahmed Shah, a store owner.

Other shopkeepers agreed, each in turn complaining about the woeful state
of their economy.

"Who is going to pay our bills? This government." Mohammed Naurang asked.
"They can't even bring law and order." Last year, the Taliban banned poppy
growing, and the price soared to $360 a pound.

Interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai also banned poppies, but so far most
farmers have ignored the order.

Karzai's government has offered money to farmers to destroy their crops.
But it's not enough. The government pays about $350 an acre, while poppies
earn farmers more than $2,000 per acre.