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End to Afghan Opium Crops Eyed
Tuesday, January 22, 2002
The Asahi Shimbun

Officials of governments and organizations participating in the international conference for the reconstruction of Afghanistan agreed Sunday to support an end to the cultivation of opium poppies in the war-ravaged country.

The agreement came in a special meeting on drug counter-measures held on the sidelines of the international conference.

The United States proposed the meeting out of concern that continued growth of opium poppies in Afghanistan -- the world's largest producer of the drug -- will damage the credibility of the nation's interim government and may affect the nation's reconstruction.

According to the U.N. Drug Control Program, 70 to 80 percent of the world's opium up to and including 2000 was produced in Afghanistan.

The Taliban banned the cultivation of opium poppies in July 2000, and production plunged to 12 percent of last year's total global yield.

But farmers are believed to have resumed cultivation of the poppies after the fall of the Taliban late last year.

The international conference, which kicked off Monday, is being held to allow government officials to discuss frameworks for assisting the war-torn country. Special meetings by the concerned officials of participating governments are planned on the sidelines of the conference to cover issues such as disarming the Afghan people and reorganizing the nation's police and military systems.
(Asahi.com News Source)
2002 © The Asahi Shimbun.

Dan