August 13, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 3, 1423

KABUL: Hundreds of kilos of heroin are being manufactured each week by factories recently set up in eastern Afghanistan, prompting fears of a new influx of high-quality, easily transportable drugs into Europe.

The renewed production of heroin, which had ceased following edicts by the Taliban regime and last autumn’s US-led military action, is a blow to the British-led, multimillion-pound effort to stop drugs production in the country.

The return of the refining laboratories, each capable of producing $600,000 worth of heroin a week, has revealed the failure of the programme to make a significant impact.

The production of the high-value drug could further destabilize Afghanistan.

The Observer has learnt of three heroin laboratories in the lawless hills south-east of Jalalabad, close to the border with Pakistan. There are believed to be several more. Two factories have been established in the Acheen district and one in the Adal Khel district of Nangarhar province.

One local resident, Naeem Shinwari, said the factories were working in broad daylight, producing between 70 and 100 kgs of refined heroin a day, with the capacity to increase production if the supply of raw poppy remains constant. Afghanistan has supplied more than two-thirds of the world’s opium for nearly a decade.

Haji Daulat Mohammad, a shopkeeper, said “even if there is no cultivation of poppy next year, the existing stock is sufficient for 12 months at least.”

“It may be haram (forbidden by Islam), but there is drought, unemployment and no other way to make my living. The West say making heroin is wrong and damages human beings, but they drop bombs on innocent civilians. We have no other way except to destroy the USA through narcotics. They shall drop bombs on us, and we shall send them this gift,” he remarked.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service