http://www.un.org/apps....ar&Cr1= Grant to help rid Myanmar of poppy cultivation, UN anti-drug office says 31 March – To support United Nations drug control efforts in one of Myanmar's main opium producing regions, the Government of Japan will provide $1.2 million towards a project expected to contribute to increasing the food security of opium farmers, improving their living standard, and eventually eradicating opium poppy cultivation. Japan's grant will help fund the Drug Control and Development Project in the Wa Region of the Shan State in Myanmar, a key component of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime's (UNODC) overall "alternative development" project, which has substantially reduced the number of poppy cultivating areas throughout Myanmar. UN efforts in the Region will include training in the construction of an irrigation system, building community capacity to manage and monitor the system, developing flat paddy fields, and introducing double cropping of rice. "The Myanmar experience offers the evidence that alternative development, along with eradication and law-enforcement efforts, represents a vital part of the effective drug supply reduction strategy," UNODC Executive Director, Antonio Maria Costa, said following the announcement of the grant in Vienna today. According to the UNODC 2002 Annual Opium Poppy Survey, with an estimated production of 828 tons in 2002 - although 25 per cent less than the previous year - Myanmar is the second largest producer of opium in the world. The first is Afghanistan with an estimated 3,400 tons in 2002. The UNODC alternative development project in Myanmar - launched in 1998 with an $11.6 million budget - aims at establishing sustainable, community-based development, in order to provide farmers an alternative to growing opium. In 2001, Japan contributed $200,000 for the implementation of a health-related component of the project. http://www.telmedpak.com/ngoarticles.asp?a=3329 Destruction of poppy fields begins in Afghanistan KABUL: Afghan interim authorities have begun destroying poppy fields despite violent protests from farmers who are about to harvest the heroin-producing crop, a UN official said on Thursday. UN Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) country director Bernard Frahi said Afghan security forces had been mowing down the lucrative flowers in Nangarhar, Helmand and Uruzgan provinces since Monday. "The destruction began on April 8, by the security forces of the interim administration and the provincial authorities," he told AFP. "There are many fields to be destroyed," he added, without giving an estimate of the total area under cultivation. Afghanistan was the world's biggest producer of opium, the raw ingredient of heroin, until the Taliban regime effectively stopped poppy cultivation last year. But with the collapse of the hardline Taliban in November, many farmers quickly reverted to growing what is easily the most lucrative crop in Afghanistan. The international community has offered millions of dollars to help the interim cabinet wipe out the poppy fields and stem the flow of heroin out of Afghanistan, but farmers say it is not enough. Faced with violent protests from farmers who refused to destroy their fields, the government has reportedly raised compensation payments from 250 dollars per 2,000 square metres (21,500 feet) to 350 dollars. "The compensation of 350 dollars is an injustice," farmer Gul Rahman told the Afghan Islamic Press (AIP). Security forces shot eight farmers during a protest in southern Helmand earlier this week, according to AIP, while in eastern Nangarhar angry growers blocked a key trade route to Pakistan. Most of Afghanistan's opium is produced in Helmand, where the crop is a major source of income for people who would otherwise live subsistence lifestyles. The US government says Afghanistan produced more than 70 percent of the world's opium in 2000, or some 3,656 tonnes according to the UNDCP. The harvest was negligible last year after Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar announced his ban. But Frahi said the UNDCP now feared that this year's harvest, which is expected to take place in the next few weeks, could yield 2,600 tonnes unless the crops are wiped out. Raw opium is converted into a morphine base or heroin in Afghanistan and then trucked north through Central Asia, west into Iran or east into Pakistan on its way to international markets, especially Europe and North America. Ashraf Ghani, the special advisor to interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai, said earlier this week there would be no backing down on the destruction of Afghanistan's poppies. Ghani said the government would "listen to all the concerns that people are raising", but added "negotiation should not become a tactic for postponement". "This is an issue in which very significant numbers of people are involved. There are people who have been making fortunes out of the misery of others and you would expect them to raise the spectre of violence or instability or threats. "We hope that the good sense of our people will prevail and they will rally to an approach which is based not on violence but an understanding of their specific circumstances."
SS - i'm not quite sure where you're coming from, but if you think that opium production in Afghanistan can be halted, you are sadly deluded.
Whats your point ranger? To let the taliban take over again? BA, thats a bunch of BS. Alls it takes is time. The people in afghanistan need something else to grow so they could make money. Thats what many countries and the UN are working towards. Have you ever heard of work? Ever try it? You socialists are such pessimists, always looking at the bad things, always saying never. In your mind the glass is not only half empty, but cracked.
ss, you seem unable to write more than a few sentences without making personal insults to people you don't even know. You also don't realize that the U.S. makes billions off of heroin trafficking. Our gov't has a vested interested in keeping the flow of heroin and other drugs into this country open. The U.S. doesn't seek to keep deadly drugs out of this country, they want it controlled, to keep thier monopoly. Do some research and you'll discover that the U.S. is the world's biggest dope pusher. Heroin was one of the reasons the U.S. was in Viet Nam. Cocaine figured into reagan's terrorist war against Nicarauga, their support of the death squads in El Salvador, and was papabush's reason for killing Panamanians and kidnapping Noriega (again against international law, which the U.S. although signatories to, routinely ignores). Drugs also figure into U.S. support of regimes in S. America that are equal with saddam in disregard of human rights.
Let me just clear a few things up for you ranger. The drugs funded a group who we supported. It was in all the papers ranger, it was no secret. The group we supported was in power for decades, but was overthrown by the Sandinistas, a left wing group that was praticing marxism with communism. America has been involved in this war since the 1930's. Its amazing how you only speak of the 70's & 80's, considering your so knowledgable on the topic. Since your so smart i probably dont need to tell you that america has been at war with communism for much of the 1900's. Its bad enough there were russian nukes in cuba, but to have them in south america would have certainly been NOT COOL. We did the right thing at the time ranger, unless you wouldve liked to see a red flag marching right through LA, maybe YOU would though. If it wasnt for congress saying we werent allowed to support the overthrow of regimes, we wouldnt need to do it. I dont agree with it. Im glad my president doesnt either. The death squads we trained were fighting against the two main leftist groups, the Farabundo Marti National Liberation (FMLN) and the Revolutionary Democracy Front (FDR), who in the 1980's were being helped by Nicaragua(run by the Sandinistas), Cuba, and the Soviet Union. These are wars against communism, and back in the 80's it was very important to win, which we did. Vietnam, North Korea, all wars against communism Ok, ranger ill bite. Please tell me how the US makes billions off of drugs? When from 1990 to 2003 the yearly spending on the war on drugs costs from 11 billion to 19 billion a year, not calculating prison expenses or welfare and healthcare costs for drug addicts in the US. Your right about noriega. We put him in jail for drug trafficking, money laundering, and racketeering. And please tell us what south american regimes your referring to?
how does the u.s. makes money off of illegal drugs? What do you think happened to the tons of cocaine that the cia brought back into this country? Would you like me to tell you? It's sure nice to find out that the death squads were doing their job to fight those dirty commies, like the nuns the death squads killed. You say that the U.S. is spending billions on the wod. Where do you think that $ comes from? And who spends it? Another way the U.S. makes $ by importing drugs (besides the money they make from selling them, duh): The gov't can make more arrests, which means more taxpayer-funded prisons and prison gaurds, some of which comes back to the gov't in political contributions from groups like the prison guards union. Beginning to get the picture? You know that with manny in a U.S. prison, the price of cocaine in the U.S. went down, right? What does that tell you? (Edited by rangerdanger at 12:11 am on April 13, 2003)
Your an idiot. Why would the government sell drugs for money when they can just make more whenever they want? The prison guard unions give contributions to individuals in the local and federal governments, and those contributions range anywhere from 250,000 to 2 million, but theres no way in hell they contribute over 11 billion which they would need to in order to make your claims seem reasonable. The money of the WOD comes from our taxes ranger. Bush spends less than clinton. Do some research if you dont believe me. Clinton almost topped 20 billion, bush cut it by atleast 5 billion. The price of cocaine goes down to increase sales. It works, the drug lords know this. Notice ranger, how the price started falling right after we arrested noriega. That opened the market for new drug lords, and as with all competing bussinesses, your gonna fight over customers and try to have the lowest price possible to attract customers and keep them happy.
I didn't say the prison guard union was the only one, just one of the ones. The feds spent more during Clinton's 8 years than jr.'s 3 years? Possibly. But I remember hearing a speech jr. gave to the religious right during his campaign promising to spend billions more $ on the war on drugs than Bill. I've posted this before but your last response indicates that you either didn't read it or were unable to retain it. Write it down this time. ollie ran an operation where people like secord and poindexter would buy surplus U.S. munitions, use taxpayer-paid cia planes and pilots to fly the weapons to Honduras and trade them to the terrorist contra's in exchange for tons of cocaine. The contra's would use sneak across the border into Nicaragua and use those weapons in raids on farming villages. Meanwhile the planes full of cocaine (one of which Nicaragua shot down, exposing what was going on to the world) flew back to Langley AFB and others locales, where the planes escaped searches (cia). The cocaine was sold to various criminal enterprizes, who then sold it to people like L.A.'s freeway ricky ross, who made millions coverting it into crack. The result--cheap and plentiful rock cocaine, which created the crack monster, which re-invigorated the w.o.d., under rrr and ex-cia strongman papabush. You might not remember, but I do: during Carter's admin, laws and public opinion re: marijuana was very lax. I remember I'd smell pot being smoked eveywhere, even at Dodger baseball games. Pot references were on all the media at the time: all the popular t.v. shows and many movies. This was bad for the people who made billions off of pot being illegal, including (but not limited to): the gov't, the textile, pharmicutical(sp) and timber industries, prison construction and prison guard concerns and the major breweries. Creating the crack epidemic was good for those above mentioned enterprizes. So you see how papabush operated? Trade U.S. weapons which the taxpayers paid for, fly them down to Honduras at taxpayer expense, bring it back to the U.S. at taxpayer expense, sell it to durg dealers (making millions) and creating a drug problem in this country which they then got billions more (of taxpayer $) to fight what they were causing. The FACTS are that ex-papabush employee noriega balked at giving papa more of a 'cut' in the cocaine trade, so papa invaded Panama, killed thousands, and installed a puppet leader, who would do as papabush told him re: keeping cocaine cheap and plentiful. Durin papa's regime, the cia flooded the U.S. with heroin. Heroin, which had traditionally be 10% pure went up to 90% pure with no increase in price. Unfortunately (for papa) the U.S. public didn't fall for it (in the majority of cases) and the increase in heroin usage didn't rise that much. Beginning to get the picture yet?
