VARIOUS: UNITED NATIONS DRUGS OFFICE ANNOUNCES NEW RECORD FOR AFGHANISTAN'S OPIUM CULTIVATION LEVEL

Record ID: 230494

  • Title: VARIOUS: UNITED NATIONS DRUGS OFFICE ANNOUNCES NEW RECORD FOR AFGHANISTAN'S OPIUM CULTIVATION LEVEL
  • Date: 19th November 2004
  • Summary: (EU) BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, NOVEMBER 18 2004 (REUTERS) 1. SCU STILL OF PHOTOGRAPH OF OPIUM POPPY IN BADAKHSHAN (AFGHANISTAN); SCU JOURNALIST BROWSING PRESS MAP ABOUT A RECENTLY UNITED NATIONS CONDUCTED OPIUM SURVEY, SHOWING MAPS AND FIGURES; PULL OUT FROM OVERHEAD PROJECTOR SCREEN TO WIDE SHOT OF NEWS CONFERENCE GIVEN BY THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME; MV NEWS CONFERENCE (4 SHOTS) 0.29 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANTONIO COSTA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME SAYING: "If I could turn around your question 'What are your biggest concerns, the extent of the cultivations?', I would say no. It's the risk that a growing share of the population at large, whether officials, government officials or provincial officials, army officials, all the private sectors, the growing segments of the population are involved, or in any event they benefit from the cultivation. That would go beyond the definition of a narco-economy and start getting into a narco-society. If in order to define a narco-state, we need the involvement of the governement, I certainly guarantee you of the total commitment of president Karzai to fight it." 1.08 3. WIDE SHOT OF NEWS CONFERENCE GIVEN BY THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS; SCREEN ON WALL SHOWING THE LINKS BETWEEN DRUG TRAFFICKING AND ORGANISED CRIME 1.23 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UK UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS, BILL RAMMELL SAYING: "One of the reasons that I have confidence that this time next year we should be looking at an improved situation is the change in the approach of the military, where there has been a change in the Coalition tasking and there has also been a change in the ISAF rules of engagement as well. The troops will now destroy seizures and hand over suspects and I think over time, that can begin to have a big impact. I think that the expansion of security forces throughout the country, are critical. What fundamentally needs to change, is that people need to be prosecuted, they need to be taken to court, and they need to be put in prison." 2.06 5. SCU SCREEN SHOWING GRAPHICS OF THE STEADILY INCREASING OF OPIUM CULTIVATION IN AFGHANISTAN. 2.14 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ANTONIO COSTA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE ON DRUGS AND CRIME SAYING: "The biggest problem of course is the very long, very long border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which is not patrolled at the Afghan side, which is to some extent covered by the army on the Pakistani side, but is very porous. I would say, that is the weak, one of the weakest elements in the whole trafficking out of Afghanistan into then Pakistan, then across the Gulf into the Gulf countries and especially across the border with Iran into Iran and beyond as I represented earlier." 2.52 7. NEWS CONFERENCE ZOOM INTO SCU UNITED NATIONS FLAG 3.03 (EU) MAIWAND DISTRICT, KANDAHAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN 8. SLV FARMER WORKING IN POPPY FIELD; CLOSE UP OF POPPIES; MV FARMER AND BOY PICKING FLOWERS OFF POPPIES; SCU POPPY FIELD (5 SHOTS) 3.29 9. SLV MAN ON TRACTOR DESTROYING POPPIES; SLV PATCH OF DESTROYED POPPIES; SLV MORE OF MAN ON TRACTORS; WIDE OF POPPY FIELD (5 SHOTS) 3.54 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 4th December 2004 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM/MAIWAND DISTRICT, KANDAHAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN
  • City:
  • Country: Afghanistan Belgium
  • Reuters ID: LVACVD3HBGI3FG89P47D3LOJ3M9U
  • Story Text: The UN drugs office announces a new record for
    Afghanistan's opium cultivation level.

    This year Afghanistan has established a double
    record, the highest drug cultivation in the country's
    history, and the largest in the world, according to Antonio
    Maria Costa, executive director of the U.N. Office on Drugs
    and Crime.

    Costa told a a news briefing in Brussels on Thursday
    (November 18) that Opium, the raw material for heroin, was
    grown in all Afghanistan's 32 provinces this year, with 10
    percent of the population, or 2.3 million people, involved
    in farming it as grinding poverty made it far more
    attractive than other crops.

    "If I could turn around your question 'What are your
    biggest concerns, the extent of the cultivations?', I would
    say no. It's the risk that a growing share of the
    population at large, whether officials, government
    officials or provincial officials, army officials, all the
    private sectors, the growing segments of the population are
    involved, or in any event they benefit from the
    cultivation. That would go beyond the definition of a
    narco-economy and start getting into a narco-society. If in
    order to define a narco-state, we need the involvement of
    the governement, I certainly guarantee you of the total
    commitment of president Karzai to fight it," Costa said.

    Valued at $2.8 billion U.S. dollars, the opium economy
    is now equivalent to over 60 percent of Afghanistan's 2003
    gross domestic product, the report says.

    While the area under cultivation soared, it was still
    less than three percent of the country's arable land. And
    production of heroin rose just 17 percent to 4,200 tonnes,
    below the 1999 record of 4,600 tonnes under the radical
    Islamic Taliban regime, due to bad weather and an insect
    infestation. Three quarters of production is exported as
    heroin, meaning Afghanistan must import some 10,000 tonnes
    of chemicals to refine the raw opium every year,
    underlining the scale of the corruption involved in the
    trade, Costa said. He said Iranian intelligence had
    recently shown him pictures of a drug convoy of 62 vehicles
    with military protection.

    As well as being a narco-economy, Afghanistan was
    largely a narco-society, Costa said, with many benefiting
    from the business: farmers pay a "tax" of around 10 percent
    of their earnings to local warlords; laboratories pay 12 to
    15 percent; and export convoys pay 15 to 18 percent. But he
    said the commitment of the government of President Hamid
    Karzai to eradicate the business meant it was not yet
    possible to say Afghanistan was a narco-state.

    The major export route is through Iran and Turkey, with
    a hub in Istanbul and another in the Albanian capital
    Tirana, before the heroin reaches the Netherlands, the main
    European distribution centre. Other routes are through
    Pakistan; across the ex-Soviet central Asian state of
    Tajikistan, from where it moves across Kyrgyzstan and
    Russia to Europe; and through Turkmenistan.

    Afghanistan now accounts for 87 percent of global
    heroin production, which has a worldwide market value of
    $30 billion. Costa estimated that there are 11 million
    heroin users worldwide, of whom 10,000 die each year from
    overdoses and another 100,000 die from sickness resulting
    from drug abuse.


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