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Post-Taleban Opium Boom
Thursday, July 25, 2002
(14:56 GMT) (15:56 UK)
By Kate Clark
BBC Correspondent

The Taleban clamped down on opium growth.
Image Credit: The BBC.

If fresh supplies come into Europe this year it will be clear that the Afghan government's efforts to suppress the crop have failed. But it was always going to be a difficult task.

AFGHANISTAN -- BBC
The BBC's Kate Clark explains how the Taleban kept opium poppy cultivation under control, following a BBC investigation into its current growth in a province of Afghanistan.

It found only a tiny fraction of the crop was destroyed this year, despite an official government ban.

The nationwide picture is still unclear, but it seems unlikely early Afghan government claims that almost all the poppy crop had been destroyed can be true.

Some 75% of Europe's heroin comes from Afghan opium.

In areas under Taleban control the crop had virtually been eliminated.

Eradicating the cultivation of opium poppies was one of the Taleban's few triumphs.
(More: BBC Online News Source)
2002 © The British Broadcasting Corporation.

Dan