http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a3.v3j8mKd2A> &sid=a3.v3j8mKd2A Taliban to Raise $100 Million From Afghan Opium Crop (Update1)
By Ed Johnson Feb. 6 (Bloomberg) -- Taliban insurgents will generate at least $100 million from this year's opium crop in Afghanistan which will almost match the record harvest in 2007, the United Nations said. Cultivation of opium poppies will remain ``shockingly high,'' Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, said in a statement today. ``Afghan drugs and the funds they generate are a destabilizing force,'' Costa said. ``Europe, Russia and the countries along the Afghan heroin routes should brace themselves again for major health and security consequences.'' Afghanistan provides more than 90 percent of the world's supply of opium, the raw ingredient for heroin, and the illicit drugs trade helps fund the Taliban insurgency, according to the UN. International efforts to cut opium production are working in the country's northeast, in contrast to increased cultivation in Taliban strongholds in the southwest, the UNODC said in a report released in Tokyo. Afghanistan's 2007 opium harvest rose 38 percent to a record 8,200 metric tons from 6,100 tons a year earlier, the UNODC said in a report in August. Land cultivated to grow the drug increased by 17 percent to 193,000 hectares (476,700 acres), it said. Cultivation in 2008 will be ``broadly similar'' or slightly lower, according to today's report issued at a meeting of international donors and the Afghan government. Islamic Law The Taliban regime, which enforced Islamic law on Afghanistan until it was ousted by a U.S.-led coalition in 2001, banned opium production in the country. The drugs trade is now a ``massive source of revenue'' for the insurgents who tax farmers at 10 percent, Costa said. ``Additional money is raised by running heroin labs and drug exports,'' he added. Afghanistan has also become the world's biggest supplier of marijuana, with the crop estimated at 70,000 hectares this year, the UNODC said. The drug is exported mostly through the southern borders with Pakistan and Iran. The report, titled ``Afghanistan Opium Winter Rapid Assessment Survey,'' is based on field visits and interviews across the country. Of the 469 villages visited, 148 reported they would grow opium poppies this year. Almost a third of poppy-growing villages said they received cash advances from drug traffickers before the April harvest. Twelve provinces will probably remain poppy-free, mainly in central and northern regions, the UNODC said. Helmand Province Cultivation will probably be the same in southern Helmand province, where NATO-led forces are battling the Taliban, according to the report. Last year, Helmand accounted for 53 percent of the total harvest. The UN has said President Hamid Karzai's government, beset by a corrupt justice system, is too weak to tackle the issue. Costa said today the country needs ``honest and functioning'' counter-narcotics and interior ministries and local governors committed to fighting the drugs trade. The UNODC is trying to broker closer border cooperation between Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran and an intelligence- sharing center in Kazakhstan to help cut drugs smuggling, according to the report. The opium trade is equivalent to about 30 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product and millions of Afghans benefit directly or indirectly from it, according to a report published yesterday by the World Bank and U.K. government. It called on the international community to invest more than $2 billion over 10 years in rural Afghanistan to wean farmers from their dependence on opium production. To contact the reporter on this story: Ed Johnson in Sydney at [EMAIL PROTECTED] . Last Updated: February 6, 2008 01:47 EST [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [email protected] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
