AFGHAN POPPY FARMERS REVOLT

Afghan Poppy Farmers Open Fire On Government Officials Seeking To Eradicate
Drug Crop

PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Tribal poppy farmers in eastern Afghanistan opened
fire on provincial officials surveying their fields as a government program
to eradicate opium poppies began Monday. At least one official was reported
killed.

Shenwari tribesmen also blocked the highway between Kabul, the Afghan
capital, and Pakistan, pelting vehicles with rocks, according to travelers
arriving in this border town.

Pir Haideri, an official with the Nangarhar provincial government in
Jalalabad, said the official in charge of security on the Pakistan- Afghan
Highway was killed in the shooting in Marco, 12 miles into Afghanistan.
Four others were wounded, he said.

Hashim Khan, a traveler arriving here, put the death toll at four,
including the security official and two Afghan workers for a nongovernment
organization working to eradicate poppy fields. Haideri said he knew of one
death but that his information could be incomplete.

Afghanistan once was the source of roughly 70 percent of the world's opium.
The Taliban banned the crop in 2000, but the rout of the Islamic extremist
militia after a U.S. bombing campaign last year prompted farmers to quickly
replant their crops.

As of Monday, the new Afghan government was offering poor farmers about
$500 an acre to destroy narcotic-bearing poppy flowers. The program has
angered many farmers because the sum falls far short of the narcotic's
market value.

There also were reports of violence at a demonstration against the program
in southern Helmand province. Khan Aka, a 40-year-old farmer, said one man
was killed and two were wounded when security forces opened fire on the
protesters.