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EU gives money to fight opium
05/04/2002 17:35 - (SA)
Brussels - The European Union said on Friday it would provide
$25 million to bolster Afghanistan's efforts
to fight and eliminate the cultivation of opium poppies.
In a statement EU External Relations Commissioner Chris Patten
said the 15 nation bloc would "fully support" the interim Afghan
government in its fight against drugs. EU officials say up to 90
percent of the heroin sold in Europe is derived from Afghan opium.
"It is profoundly in the interests of both Europe and
Afghanistan that farmers should know they do not have to choose
between poverty and poppy production," Patten said. "These drugs
are a menace to Europe and a menace to Afghanistan."
The government of interim leader Hamid Karzai announced on Thursday
that it would eliminate the cultivation of the narcotic crop by
providing limited payments to farmers to grow other crops.
A total eradication campaign would wipe out as much as 70
percent of the world's supply of opium - as well as what is
believed to be Afghanistan's major source of income.
Poppy farmers are to receive around $500 for about half a hectare - a fraction of what they can earn from opium - to destroy their crops.
Police will be sent in if they refuse, officials said.
The EU's head office, the European Commission said it was ready
to give assistance to farming areas dependent on poppy production.
It added that it would give an additional $439 000 to help the interim government's law enforcement
capabilities in fighting drugs.
The EU aid will be sent starting this June, around the time when
the first harvests of opium would begin across Afghanistan.
Efforts to eradicate this year's crop will be a major logistical
challenge for a weak interim Afghan administration. Up to 70 800
acres nationwide have been cultivated in poppy in past years. - Sapa-AP
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