Opium cultivation in Afghanistan up by 64 per cent.
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Brussels, 18 November: This year, opium cultivation in Afghanistan has increased by 64 per cent compared to 2003, according to the Afghanistan Opium Survey 2004, released Thursday by the United Nation Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Presenting the survey to the press in Brussels, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of UNODC, warned that the fear that Afghanistan might degenerate into a narco-state is slowly becoming a reality. He said opium cultivation has spread to all of Afghanistan’s 32 provinces, making narcotics the main engine of economic growth. Valued at 2.8bn dollars, the opium economy is now equivalent to over 60 per cent of Afghanistan’s 2003 GDP. “With 131,000 hectares dedicated to opium farming, this year Afghanistan has established a double record, the highest drug cultivation in the country’s history, and the largest in the world,” the UNODC director said. At the same time, bad weather and disease lowered the 2004 opium yield per hectare by almost 30 per cent, resulting in a total output of 4,200 tonnes, which exceeds last year’s by 17 per cent. According to the 2004 UNODC Survey, the nature-related productivity decline capped Afghanistan’s 2004 opium production at an amount still lower than the Taleban’s 1999 peak of 4,600 tonnes. “Afghan annals will record 2004 as contradictory. Political progress towards democracy culminated in the near plebiscite election of President [Hamed] Karzai,” said Costa. “Yet, opium cultivation, which has spread like wildfire throughout the country, could ultimately incinerate everything, democracy, reconstruction and stability,” he said. Costa said that Afghanistan is now also producing and exporting heroin. To produce the heroin, about 10,000 tonnes of chemical elements are smuggled into Afghanistan from Pakistan, Russia, India, and Iran. He said there was no evidence of the involvement of governments of neighbouring countries in drug smuggling, and noted that Iran’s border is strictly controlled by the Iranians. Bill Rammell, British Under Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, also participated in the press conference. He said it is essential to expand close cooperation with Afghanistan’s key neighbours along the main trafficking routes. Rammell noted that seizure of drugs on Iran’s border increased significantly in 2003. The UNODC director said he has asked the Afghan government to pursue four goals in 2005: a significant eradication campaign, prosecution of major drug trafficking cases, measurable actions against corruption in the government and a reinforced counter-narcotics structure. He added that fighting narcotics is equivalent to fighting terrorism. “It would be a historical error to abandon Afghanistan to opium, right after we reclaimed it from the Taleban and Al-Qa’idah,” Costa concluded. |