News (Media Awareness Project) - Afghanistan: Poppies To Go, Whether Farmers Take Cash Or Not |
| Title: | Afghanistan: Poppies To Go, Whether Farmers Take Cash Or Not |
| Published On: | 2002-04-06 |
| Source: | Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) |
| Fetched On: | 2008-01-24 13:21:31 |
POPPIES TO GO, WHETHER FARMERS TAKE CASH OR NOT
With this country's vast fields of poppies ready to flower soon, Afghan
officials said they would embark on a novel plan to pay farmers to destroy
their crops, whether they wanted to or not.
Ashraf Ghani, a senior adviser to Hamid Karzai, the leader of the interim
government, said on Thursday that agents of the Afghan government would
begin distributing cash payments to farmers in Badakshan, Helmand and
Nangarhar provinces this month. The three centres are thought to produce
about 90 per cent of the country's opium.
The undisclosed cost will be borne by the United States, Britain and other
Western countries, which have been pressuring the Afghan government to
crack down on poppy production.
In recent months there have been suggestions that Western countries would
make the aid they have pledged to Afghanistan conditional on efforts by the
Karzai government to attack poppy cultivation. Mr Ghani said this was not
the case.
Under the plan, the Afghan officials will offer poppy farmers about $A2800
a hectare to destroy their plants. If the farmers refused, Mr Ghani said,
the officials would destroy the crops anyway.
Meanwhile, the interim government released 140 men it rounded up this week
on suspicion of plotting a coup, but officials were still questioning 160
others suspected of planning "terrorism, abductions, and sabotage".
The Interior Minister, Yunis Qanuni, acknowledged on Thursday that
authorities had wrongly detained many suspects in a sweep of alleged
associates of the former mujahideen prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
But Mr Qanuni said the government had foiled attempts on the lives of Mr
Karzai, the former king Zahir Shah and international peacekeepers. He said
authorities had found explosives and remote-control devices, and suggested
that co-conspirators in neighbouring countries might be involved.
The US military said leaflets were circulating in eastern Afghanistan
offering rewards for killing foreigners connected to the international
drive against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
With this country's vast fields of poppies ready to flower soon, Afghan
officials said they would embark on a novel plan to pay farmers to destroy
their crops, whether they wanted to or not.
Ashraf Ghani, a senior adviser to Hamid Karzai, the leader of the interim
government, said on Thursday that agents of the Afghan government would
begin distributing cash payments to farmers in Badakshan, Helmand and
Nangarhar provinces this month. The three centres are thought to produce
about 90 per cent of the country's opium.
The undisclosed cost will be borne by the United States, Britain and other
Western countries, which have been pressuring the Afghan government to
crack down on poppy production.
In recent months there have been suggestions that Western countries would
make the aid they have pledged to Afghanistan conditional on efforts by the
Karzai government to attack poppy cultivation. Mr Ghani said this was not
the case.
Under the plan, the Afghan officials will offer poppy farmers about $A2800
a hectare to destroy their plants. If the farmers refused, Mr Ghani said,
the officials would destroy the crops anyway.
Meanwhile, the interim government released 140 men it rounded up this week
on suspicion of plotting a coup, but officials were still questioning 160
others suspected of planning "terrorism, abductions, and sabotage".
The Interior Minister, Yunis Qanuni, acknowledged on Thursday that
authorities had wrongly detained many suspects in a sweep of alleged
associates of the former mujahideen prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.
But Mr Qanuni said the government had foiled attempts on the lives of Mr
Karzai, the former king Zahir Shah and international peacekeepers. He said
authorities had found explosives and remote-control devices, and suggested
that co-conspirators in neighbouring countries might be involved.
The US military said leaflets were circulating in eastern Afghanistan
offering rewards for killing foreigners connected to the international
drive against the Taliban and al-Qaeda.
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