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Poppy ban 'fuels refugee exodus'
21/11/2000 10:56 - (SA)
Shinwar, Afghanistan -
Farmers and officials in this eastern town believe a ban on opium
cultivation in Afghanistan could spur the exodus of refugees
already fleeing drought and war.
They said the ruling Taliban militia which governs most of
Afghanistan seemed serious about changing the country's image as
the world's biggest opium producer despite silent opposition from
farmers.
"Poppy was the only credit for us. We have to leave for Pakistan if
we cannot grow it," said Ahmad Khaled, a farmer in the opium-rich
Shinwar district of eastern Nangarhar province, close of Pakistan.
"Other crops are not as good to meet our rising cost of life," he
said.
His sentiment was echoed by dozens of other sun-tanned farmers who
have already prepared their fields to sow the poppy plant which
produces heroin.
They said they had no choice but to obey the ban announced by
Taliban Supreme Leader Mulla Mohammad Omar, and blamed the United
Nations Drugs Control Programme (UNDCP) for failing to provide
backup assistance.
Nangarhar is the second biggest opium-producing province after
southern Helmand. Afghanistan produced a record yield of 4 600
tons of opium in 1999, more than the rest of the world combined.
Farmers in Shinwar, a big marketing point for regional
drug-traffickers with its famous Ghani Kheil opium bazaar, said
they had been paid by smugglers cash in advance for their next
crop.
"They will take us by our necks and demand their money," said
farmer Mohammad Omar.
"We have to run away if we cannot pay our debts back," he said,
adding that poppies were laborious to grow but yielded up to five
times more than wheat.
In the officially closed Ghani market some shopkeepers offered a
ser (seven kilogrammes) of raw opium for an equivalent
of $1 000. That's twice the price from before the ban was
announced last month.
Much of the "black gold" is converted into heroin in remote
laboratories and smuggled across Afghanistan's porous northern
borders into Central Asia, from where it makes its way to Europe
and the big money end of the market. - Sapa-AFP
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