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Angry Afghans paid to stop harvest
13/04/2002 16:19 - (SA)
Jalalabad, Afghanistan - Top government officials attempted on Saturday to soothe growing
anger among farmers as a controversial programme to wipe out opium
producing poppy crops gathered pace in eastern Afghanistan.
But many farmers appeared to be ignoring the edict and were
trying to harvest their crops before teams armed with scythes and
sticks wrecked the striking pink and white flowers.
Ashraf Ghani, chief advisor to interim leader Hamid Karzai
travelled here to accompany provincial governor Abdul Qadir to
address the disgruntled farmers who are being compensated with just
a fraction of the crop's value.
The government is doling out $350 per 2,500 square metres for their crops, roughly one-tenth of their
true worth. The administration has already been forced to raise its
original price by $100 after hundreds of farmers in Nangahar
province blocked the main road near the border with Pakistan.
The United Nations says 16 people have been killed in clashes
between farmers and security forces since the government announced
its poppy eradication drive.
The farmers, already enraged at the destruction of their
livelihood, have been further angered by a delay in compensation
payments.
"I promised you an amount of money and you will receive that
amount," Ghani told a group of around 50 farmers just outside
Jalalabad, the capital of Nangahar.
"Everyone should receive the money on their lap, but if there
are any problems they should contact my friend the governor."
Wads of $50 notes were then handed out to waiting farmers
who had the appropriate forms.
Gul Wais, whose poppy fields at his farm in the nearby village
of Zangoy were mowed down on Thursday, said he was still awaiting
compensation.
"I've not received anything yet," he said after the visit by
Ghani and Kadir, who watched as the crops were destroyed.
"You know about the problems of this country, there are no jobs,
no factories, no-one will even accept us as servants. It is the
only thing that we can grow to survive.
"I'm now going to grow vegetables but that's just not enough,"
said the father of seven.
Officials expected to finish destruction
More than 50 poppy fields have already been destroyed in the
Jalalabad district alone in the last three days and officials are
expected to finish the destruction programme within the next four
days.
Mohammad Abbas, one of Qadir's commanders, said on a tour of
the fields that some farmers were harvesting their crops early.
"If we see anyone harvesting, we go and step on all their crops
and we send them to prison. They will no longer be entitled to any
compensation."
At one point Abbas stopped his truck and despatched about 10 men
to travel down a field where there were signs a farmer was trying
to cheat the ban.
"These people were trying to get the opium in quickly so I have
sent my soldiers and some workers we rented in the bazaar to
destroy their crops."
Zabi Ullah, a farmer who had just received $750 for the
destruction of his poppies on Friday said the money was far from
adequate.
"It is just not enough, I am finished, I do not know how I will
survive," he said.
He said he had few qualms about growing opium, although when
pressed he conceded heroin could be a deadly drug.
"No, it is not good that we are growing it, but after we
distribute it we do not know what happens. All the people in the
villages around here are healthy, so I don't know."
He said he had expected to harvest 50 kilogrammes of
opium, earning him tens of thousands of dollars.
Afghanistan was the world's biggest producer of opium, the raw
ingredient of heroin, until the Taliban banned poppy cultivation
last year.
But with the change in regime, many farmers reverted to growing
what is easily the most lucrative crop in Afghanistan.
The US government says that Afghanistan produced more than 70
percent of the world's opium in the year 2000.
Raw opium is converted into heroin in Afghanistan and then
trucked north through central Asia, west into Iran, or east into
Pakistan on its way to international markets.
- Sapa-AFP
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