Pravda.RU:

Hot spots:More in detail
       15:12 2001-07-11

                       TALIBAN OFFERS WEST TO BUY BIG OPIUM
STORES

       The Taliban have proposed to the western countries to buy vast
stores of
       opium. Abdul Hamid Ahund-zadeh, chief of the Taliban commission for
drugs
       control, offered the West and the USA to buy opium for pharmacy at
a
       meeting with the ambassadors these countries, writes The News daily
with
       reference to sources at the Taliban embassy in
Pakistan.
       Last year the Taliban spiritual leader, mullah Omar, issued a special
       decree banning the growing of opium poppy in the country. Western
       countries are worried that huge reserves of raw opium are found in
a
       territory controlled by the Kabul government. According to information
       from Afghanistan, it has amassed hundreds of tonnes of raw
opium.
       Local observers estimate that the reserves of opium and heroin are
enough
       for at least three years to come. Border control has been
intensified on
       the Pakistani frontier, which has lessened the flow of drugs leaving
       Afghanistan along the "Northern route" -- the North-Western
border
       province of Pakistan. This has led to a situation when the price of
raw
       opium has gone up from 30 to 350 dollars per kilogramme on underground
       opium markets in Pakistan. Now drug traffickers are more and
more
       actively using the "Southern route" -- the desert territories of
the
       Baluchistan province -- for trafficking drugs from Afghanistan to
Europe,
       the Middle East and America.