Opium Eradication Starts in Afghanistan [View All]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2899218

Opium Eradication Starts in Afghanistan
Opium Eradication Under Way in Taliban Heartland to Dismay of Afghan Farmers


By NOOR KHAN

DOBUNDI, Afghanistan Feb 23, 2007 (AP)— Anguish creased the weathered face of the opium farmer as a U.S.-trained eradication team swept through his farm fields in this southern Afghan village.

With helicopters buzzing overhead, dozens of tractors plowed up Sadullah Khan's sprouting poppy plants, which in two months time would have yielded the sticky resin used to make heroin and earned him, by Afghan standards, a generous income.

After failing miserably to curb opium production last year, the Afghan government has launched a renewed eradication drive, particularly here in Helmand province which accounted for more than 40 percent of the 2006's record yield of 6,725 tons. The U.S. government estimates the opium trade generates $3 billion a year in illicit economic activity.

There is some armed resistance to the campaign in Helmand, where drug gangs and Taliban militants form a powerful nexus against President Hamid Karzai's unpopular government. Still, counter-narcotics officials expect better results this year if not a resounding success.