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A6 WORLD NEWS
Monday 4 april 2022
Taliban clamp down on drugs, announce ban on poppy harvest

By KATHY GANNON and ment also reportedly made
MOHAMMAD SHOAIB AMIN millions on the flourishing
Associated Press drug trade.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Washington spent more
Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban than $8 billion trying to
on Sunday announced a eradicate poppy produc-
ban on harvesting poppies, tion in Afghanistan dur-
even as farmers in some ing its nearly 20-year war,
parts of the country began which ended with the Tal-
extracting the opium from iban takeover of the coun-
the plant that is needed for try in August.
making heroin. Nearly 80% of heroin pro-
The Taliban warned farm- duced from Afghan opium
ers that their crops will be reaches Europe through
burned and that they can Central Asia and Pakistan.
be jailed if they proceed According to a U.N. report
with the harvest. The har- in 2021, income from opi-
vest and planting seasons ates in Afghanistan was be-
vary across Afghanistan. tween $1.8 billion and $2.7
In the Taliban heartland billion, more than 7% of the
of southern Kandahar the country’s GDP. The same
harvesting has begun but report said “illicit drug sup-
in the east of the country ply chains outside Afghani-
some farmers are just be- Afghan farmers harvest poppy in Nad Ali district, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Friday, April 1, stan” make much more.
ginning to plant their crop. 2022. Associated Press The Taliban’s ban comes as
In desperately poor Af- the country faces a human-
ghanistan the ban seems the previous Taliban rule for millions of small farm- Crime said could poten- itarian crisis that spurred
certain to further impover- in the late 1990s when the ers and day laborers who tially yield 320 tons of pure the U.N. to ask for $4.4 bil-
ish its poorest citizens at a movement espousing a can earn upwards of $300 heroin. lion last month as 95% of Af-
time when the country is in harsh interpretation of Islam a month harvesting them Afghanistan produces ghans do not have enough
an economic free fall. outlawed poppy produc- and extracting the opium. more opium than all opium- to eat.
The decree was an- tion. At that time, the ban Today, Afghanistan is the producing countries com- The ban, while hitting drug
nounced by Taliban was implemented coun- world’s largest producer of bined and last year was the production houses hard,
spokesman Zabihullah Mu- trywide within two years, opium, despite billions of sixth straight year of record will likely devastate small
jahid at a news conference and according to the U.N. dollars spent by the inter- opium harvests. farmers who rely on opium
in the capital of Kabul. The largely helped eradicate national community during During the years-long Tal- production to survive. It’s
order also outlawed the poppy production. its 20 years in Afghanistan iban insurgency, the move- difficult to know how the
manufacturing of narcot- However, after the ouster to eradicate the drug. In ment reportedly made Taliban will be able to cre-
ics and the transportation, of the Taliban in 2001, farm- 2021, before the Taliban millions of dollars taxing ate substitute crops and
trade, export and import of ers in many parts of the takeover, Afghanistan pro- farmers and middle men financing for farmers, at
heroin, hashish and alco- country returned to poppy duced more than 6,000 to move their drugs outside a time when international
hol. production. Poppies are tons of opium, which the Afghanistan. Senior officials development money has
The ban is reminiscent of the main source of income U.N. Office on Drugs and of the U.S.-backed govern- stopped.q

Ex-UN prosecutor urges global arrest warrant for Putin

arrest warrant to be issued newspaper Blick. “These those who took the deci-
for Russian President Vladi- dead people have loved sions.”
mir Putin.“Putin is a war ones who don’t even know She said it would be pos-
criminal,” Carla Del Ponte what’s become of them. sible to bring even Putin to
told the Swiss newspaper That is unacceptable.” account.
Le Temps in an interview Other war crimes she iden- “You mustn’t let go, con-
published Saturday. tified in Ukraine included tinue to investigation.
In interviews given to Swiss attacks on civilians, the When the investigation
media to mark the release destruction of civilian into Slobodan Milosevic
of her latest book, the Swiss buildings and even the de- began, he was still presi-
lawyer who oversaw U.N. molishing of entire villages. dent of Serbia.
investigations in Rwanda She said the investigation Who would have thought
and the former Yugoslavia in Ukraine would be easi- then that he would one
said there were clear war er than that in Yugoslavia day be judged? Nobody,”
crimes being committed in because the country itself she told Blick.
Carla del Ponte, then Member of the Independent Commission Ukraine. had requested an inter- Del Ponte added that in-
of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic, attends a press She said she was particu- national probe. The cur- vestigations should be
conference, at the European headquarters of the United
Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, Wednesday, March 1, 2017. larly shocked by the use of rent ICC chief prosecutor, carried out into possible
Associated Press mass graves in Russia’s war Karim Khan, visited Ukraine war crimes committed by
on Ukraine, which recalls last month. both sides, pointing also to
the worst of the wars in the If the ICC finds proof of reports about the alleged
GENEVA (AP) — The for- tribunals for the former Yu- former Yugoslavia. war crimes, she said, “you torture of some Russian
mer chief prosecutor of goslavia and Rwanda has “I hoped never to see mass must go up the chain of prisoners of war by Ukrai-
United Nations war crimes called for an international graves again,” she told the command until you reach nian forces.q