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Cannabis Campaigners' Guide News Database result:
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US Findings Bely UN Report On Pak-Afghan Drugs
Times of India, The
Tuesday 06 Mar 2001 Pubdate: Tue, 06 Mar 2001 Source: Times of India, The (India) Website: http://www.timesofindia.com/ Author: Mahendra Ved US FINDINGS BELY UN REPORT ON PAK-AFGHAN DRUGS NEW DELHI: Till the findings of the US State Department made public on Saturday, the world was lulled into believing that a severe drought and publicity campaign by the well-meaning United Nations Drug Control Programme ( UNDCP ), combined with a diktat by Taliban supremo Mullah Omar, had actually led to a sharp fall in the opium production in Afghanistan last September. In its annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report, the State Department said Afghanistan continued to be the largest opium producer accounting for 72 per cent of the world's illicit opium supply despite severe drought conditions in most parts of that country. Reliable estimates indicate that cultivation has increased by 25 per cent and potential production reached 3,656 metric tons. Traffickers of Afghan heroin continued to route most of their production to Europe and has now targeted the US, the report released in Washington said. The report makes it clear that Afghanistan's rulers have been using drug money to finance their weapon purchases and military operations. The Taliban in July last issued a new ban on poppy cultivation, but it was not clear how serious their efforts are to enforce the ban, the report said, adding the announcement of the ban had caused the drug prices to rise -- a boon for traffickers sitting on large stockpiles. The UNDCP had earlier reported that the opium production during the year 2000 was 3275.9 metric tonnes, which was in real terms less than 4,581 MT in 1999. According to UNDCP survey report, farmers from some 7541 villages in 125 districts across the country - mostly under the Taliban militia - were found involved in poppy cultivation. The southern Helmand and the eastern Nangrahar provinces accounted for 52 and 24 per cent respectively for the total poppy produce in 2000. The UNDCP's findings were questioned by experts in India and elsewhere. India's Narcotics Control Bureau in a report stated that the findings of the world organisation were based on limited survey and that the time chosen for it was before the sowing season. The UNDCP officials withdrew from the poppy-producing centres, by the year-end, citing fund shortage to continue with the programme. This prompted the Pakistani journal, The Friday Times, to question its reason and rationale, arguing that the UNDCP was withdrawing just when the programme was showing some positive results. "Initially, we had firm commitments of about $10 million which we have spent on alternative development, demand reduction and monitoring of the programme," UNDCP representative for the region, Bernard Frahi told TFT last April. However, he said that after spending almost 65 per cent of those funds, "we have a shortfall of some $4 million, which Pino Arlacci, the head of the UNDCP, has not been able to secure from the donors. Arlacchi tried his best to keep the project running and even take it beyond June 2001, the stipulated project completion time." The State Department report says that while Pakistani opium production has plummeted, neighbouring Afghanistan has become the world's largest opium producer. "The tripling of poppy cultivation in Afghanistan since 1993 and growth in sophistication of the Afghan drug trade are putting enormous pressure on Pakistan's border control efforts and Pakistani society," The News reported on Saturday. Successful interdiction operations occur, but traffickers have superior firepower and faster vehicles, the territory is enormous, and law enforcement is widely dispersed, with little rapid mobilisation airlift capability. The report says: "This means more drugs transiting Pakistan, a growing addiction problem, and more cash available for bribery and official corruption." It says Pakistan remains an important transit country for the precursor chemical acetic anhydride destined for Afghanistan's heroin laboratories.
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