WIRE:04/22/2000 21:32:00 ET
FEATURE-Opium market flourishes in Afghanistan

GHANI KHEL, Afghanistan, April 23 (Reuters) - Gilaz Khan's opium shop is down a dusty road past a U.N. anti-narcotics office surrounded by poppy fields, a Taleban government office and a sign warning of the evils of drugs.
The street in front of his store in Ghani Khel, an hour's drive from Afghanistan's Khyber Pass border with Pakistan, has the feel of any other in Asia where dozens of shops compete to sell the same product.

But in the case of Ghani Khel, it is opium, the raw material for heroin, sold in quantities ranging from one kilo (2.2 lb) "cakes" to shipments of hundreds of kilos.

Afghanistan has now overtaken Myanmar and produces 75 percent of the world's opium. The United Nations estimates Afghanistan produced 4,600 tonnes of opium in 1999, more than double the previous year.

Some Western anti-drug officials have accused the ruling Taleban of profiting from the drug, while Taleban officials say it has been part of the economy for decades and they need international help to control it.

Most of Afghanistan's opium ends up as heroin in Europe or North America, said Bernard Frahi, the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan. Ample quantities also find their way into Iran and the Russian republics.

"Here is the start of the drug trafficking. Traffickers come here to buy it, then process it into morphine, to heroin, to pure heroin which is then sold on the streets," Frahi said on a recent visit to Ghani Khel.

Opium is illegal in Afghanistan and Khan -- who has been selling the drug for five years -- was reluctant to speak about what he did and refused to have his photo taken.

The merchants in Ghani Khel quickly pull in their weighing scales and shut their doors when unexpected visitors arrive.

Khan rents one of the 80 to 100 opium stalls lining a truck-filled street in the shadow of a sign in Pashto and English that reads: "Drug abuse is a source of problems and illegal deeds."

PROFIT OF 100 RUPEES

"I sell it for between 2,700 and 3,000 rupees (US$52-58) a kilo, and make a profit of 100 rupees a kilo," said Khan, gesturing towards several plastic bags in his shop containing about 25 kg each of dried opium.

He said he had sold 1,000 kg in the past year.

Ten kilos of opium yields one kilo of morphine, which can be processed into one kilo of heroin.

The wholesale price of heroin in the United Kingdom can reach $25,000 a kilo and $100-$160 per gram on the street.

The Taleban, vilified by the United States for allegedly harbouring terrorists and profiting from the misery of heroin junkies, says poppy cultivation is a matter of economic survival.

It sees no contradiction between a strict ban on domestic consumption and its widespread growth for export to the alleys and "needle parks" of wealthy consuming nations.

But Khan said he was less worried about Afghanistan's image than with his business.

"There's a lot of competition and business is just so-so," he said. "And new (harvest) opium will hit the market soon."

Poppy fields in the eastern province of Nangarhar -- which produces about 20 percent of Afghanistan's opium -- are harvested in the second half of April.

Southern Helmand province has about 50 percent of the poppy crop.

NO TAXES

A visibly nervous Khan said he paid no levies to the Taleban.

"The Taleban do not tax opium. My only expense is the 14,000 rupee rent (a year) on my shop," he said.

"Mostly I sell it to Pakistani traders. I don't know where they take it. I think it goes over the mountains on mules," Khan said while standing in his musty mud-walled room that lacked electricity and a proper floor.

There are an estimated two million heroin addicts in Pakistan, which has a population of 135 million.

"They (Afghan merchants) do not sell morphine and heroin, so that is positive. The second stage, in the near future, would be to stop having this opium market," said U.N. representative Frahi, who is with the United Nations on leave from the French police.

Frahi was in Nangarhar to witness the destruction of some poppy fields as part of a pledge by the Taleban to slash opium production by one-third this year.

The destruction was part of efforts by local officials to meet a decree last September by the Taleban's supreme leader, Mullah Omar, to reduce poppy cultivation.

Western anti-drug experts have said they are doubtful of that, and Frahi said it would take until September to determine how successful the campaign was.

The U.N. office monitors the size of poppy fields, encourages farmers to switch to legal crops and repairs dams and water pumps in exchange for guarantees the water will not be used for poppies.

But Frahi admitted it was difficult to break farmers' dependence on the poppy, which has been grown in Nangarhar for five decades.

How difficult that task is can be seen from a glance out of the windows of the UNDCP field office in Ghani Khel, which is surrounded by flowering poppy fields.

"These are small farmers and they do not listen to us," said local leader Haji Murad Ali, when asked by Frahi why the poppy fields were there.

"We realise it is part of the grassroots, part of the socio-economic environment...having said this, we of course, cannot tolerate opium markets," Frahi said.

kistan, has the feel of any other in Asia where dozens of shops compete to sell the same product.