BUSH WAIVER LETS AFGHANS CONTINUE TO RECEIVE AID

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, issuing a report card on countries with drug
problems, gave a passing grade to Colombia and Mexico on Monday and took
steps to ensure U.S. assistance to Afghanistan will continue.

Bush's assessment covered calendar year 2001, a period, he said, when
Afghanistan had "failed demonstrably" to adhere to international drug
control standards.

Under the law, such a finding could prohibit some assistance programs, but
Bush issued a waiver on grounds that aid to the new government in
Afghanistan is "vital to the national interests of the United States."

The Taliban were in power in Afghanistan for most of 2001 before being
ousted by U.S.-led military action. For the past several years, Afghanistan
has been denied U.S. assistance, partly because the Taliban was found to
have engaged in heroin trafficking.

Rand Beers, the State Department's top anti-crime official, told reporters
the law does not ban counterdrug and humanitarian assistance. On that basis,
he said, the Bush administration was able to provide assistance to
Afghanistan's interim government.

The waiver allows the administration to provide all types of assistance to
Afghanistan.

A month ago, Secretary of State Colin Powell pledged $296 million in
reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan for this year, part of what
officials say will be a long-term commitment to that country.

Bush found that Haiti and Myanmar also had "failed demonstrably" to
cooperate effectively in combatting drug trafficking. Haiti, like
Afghanistan, was given a national interest waiver. There was no waiver
issued for Myanmar, meaning that country will continue to be denied most
types of assistance.

Of the 23 countries covered by the report, 20 were found to meet
international standards for combatting drug trafficking.

Colombia and Mexico are major producers of illicit drugs but Beers credited
both with mounting effective anti-narcotics campaigns.

"The overall efforts of the Colombian police and military, I think, have
been have been significant," Beers said. "In addition, the law enforcement
cooperation between ourselves and Colombia is superior."

Colombia is the world leader in the production and distribution of cocaine.

Beers also praised Mexico's anti-drug effort as significant, citing in
particular the country's willingness to extradite traffickers wanted in the
United States.

Mexico is the principal transit point for U.S.-bound cocaine from South
America.

The 23 countries examined are used for drug production, drug transit, or
both.

They are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Haiti, Mexico, Colombia, Nigeria, Paraguay,
the Bahamas, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala,
India, Jamaica, Laos, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Thailand, Venezuela and
Vietnam.

On Afghanistan, Beers said the challenges for the interim government are
enormous as it attempts to curb the production of opium, the raw material
for heroin.

A State Department report last year said Afghanistan accounts for 72 percent
of the world's opium supply.

Beers said the new government in Afghanistan has said it will not tolerate
cultivation or trafficking in opium poppy.

He acknowledged, however, that enforcement of this goal is difficult because
of a lack of security forces available for this task.

One possibility, he said, was the creation of incentives to induce farmers
to plow under their opium crop.

But an official in Helmand province, the biggest opium-growing region in the
world, said Monday this year's crop will be allowed to bloom and be
harvested because the new government in Kabul is too weak to stop it.