26 February 2002

Afghanistan Needs Help to Cut Heroin Production

United Nations -- For more than ten years Afghanistan had been the world's largest producer of illicit heroin and the international community must act now to help the Karzai Interim Administration and the new Afghanistan break the cycle of illicit drug production, a member of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) said February 26.

Introducing the International Narcotics Control Board Report 2001, Ambassador Herbert Okun, the U.S. member of the INCB, said that while a devastating drought and the events after September 11 disrupted heroin production "Afghanistan clearly has the capacity to become again the world's largest producer of heroin."

The International Narcotics Control Board has been very active since November 2001 in calling the attention of governments, particularly the Security Council, to the need to help Afghan farmers do other things rather than grow opium poppies, Okun said at a press conference at U.N. headquarters.

Under the Taliban, heroin production "clearly flourished," Okun said.

"Another fact to bear in mind: under the Taliban, there was never a drug seizure in Afghanistan, not one single case of recorded seizure," he continued. "Now if you're in a country that is the world's largest producer of heroin and you have a police force, but, guess what, they don't seize one kilogram of heroin, I think we're safe in concluding that this police force is really not interested in seizing heroin. They were very complicit in this business."

In contrast, Okun pointed out, "Iran fights the drug problem fiercely and has for a very long time. Eighty percent of the world's seizures of poppies and 90 percent of heroin are made in Iran. The overwhelming number of seizures are made by Iran because a lot of the trafficking goes west through Iran."

The INCB pressed both the Northern Alliance and the Taliban to do more to stop opium production and seize shipments meeting with officials in 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2001. In fact, in early September 2001 INCB President Hamid Ghodse and some INCB members were in Kabul criticizing the Taliban authorities once again.

In 2000, the INC warned the Taliban that they would take action to have Afghanistan removed from the 1961 Drug Treaty regime, Okun said. "Two months after we notified them the Taliban issued a fatwah saying we're banning the cultivation of opium, meanwhile sitting on five-year's supply of heroin."

"They had to do it to look good to the board and production went down about 10 percent," he said. "The worse drought in 30 years also helped reduce production. Needless to say...(Taliban) earned good press in 2000 with the fatwah, but it was a 'con job' and the drought did their work for them."

With the new situation in Afghanistan, the INCB has been pressing the United Nations and the Security Council to take action. Board President Ghodse and Okun met with Security Council President for February, Mexican Ambassador Adolfo Zinser, and suggested that a resolution be adopted urging Afghanistan, as a signatory to the Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs of 1961, to live up to its agreement. They said that the international community should and must help the government of Afghanistan.

"We need to wean the peasants of Afghanistan away from growing the opium poppy. So crop substitution will be required and it has to be serious, it has to be sustained and we hope it will happen soon," Okun said.

"This is not an issue that people argue about," he added. "This is not controversial. The developed countries, the developing countries, the countries in the region have an interest in Afghanistan's not resuming its place at the head of the list of heroin growers."

Although 90 percent of Afghan heroin goes to Europe, Okun said, "it is not simply the Europeans who want to see Afghan production stopped. Increasing amounts of Afghan heroin goes to Russia and the neighborhood is seriously destabilized -- both Iran and Pakistan have very serious addiction problems because of their proximity to Afghanistan."

"For all of these reasons, it is a problem that clearly involves the maintenance of international peace and security," Okun said

The Karzai Administration issued a ban on opium poppy cultivation in January, but it has not been effective, Okun said. There are already reports that poppy fields are beginning to bloom all over Afghanistan and will be ready for harvesting in the Spring.

"It is not (Karzai's) fault because the farmers do need to grow something," he said. "This means we need serious crop substitution and a lot of help from the international community to help the peasants."

"Even if the ban were effective and the farmers chose to go hungry rather than grow the poppies, another problem is the huge supply of heroin that was being held by the Taliban regime," Okun said.

The INCB has estimated that the Taliban held a three- to six-year supply of heroin, some of which "has been unloaded since the war began and plenty of it is still there," he said.

"So the problem is a very real -- both the growing and supply of heroin," Okun said.

Each year the INCB issues a wide-ranging report -- often referred to as a report on the "state of the world's drug situation" -- detailing national and international drug control issues from the lack of painkillers to help cancer patients in developing countries to cocaine trafficking. The Annual Report 2001, released February 27, 2002, highlights the dangers that globalization and new technology pose in fighting drugs. It also includes country-by-country highlights on illicit production and trafficking.

In its report, the board also expressed concern that that because of the military events in Afghanistan after September 11, opium poppy cultivation may emerge elsewhere in West Asia. "Governments of countries in the region should remain extremely vigilant in order to prevent such a development," the report said.

"The smuggling of opiates in West Asia has become more organized, profitable and violent and is jeopardizing the economic and social stability of some countries in the region. Therefore, the fight against drug and chemical trafficking has to continue to be a priority for governments in the region," the report said.

The availability of heroin originating in Afghanistan remains high in the region even following the bans and no effects on the availability of heroin have been observed in countries outside of the region, it said.