UN briefing on post Taliban war against narcotic production.

(16 Jan 2002) 1. Bernard Frahi of United Nations Drug Control Program(UNDCP) steps up to microphone at press conference in Kabul 2. Cutaway of media 3. SOUNDBITE (English) Bernard Frahi, United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP): "The resurgence of poppy cultivation this year in poppy-free areas is not acceptable as it can ruin the remarkable effort carried out by Afghans in the post-Bonn Agreement. A minority of people in the tribal areas are jeopardising the positive steps taken by the majority in building up a new Afghanistan." 4. Cutaway of media 5. SOUNDBITE (English) Bernard Frahi, United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP): "The war against drugs is far from being lost in Afghanistan as has been written in some newspapers recently. On the contrary, this first seizure represents the first gains in the battle against heroin. We know that traffickers are worried to keep processed heroin in Afghanistan where they know that gradually the stockpiles will be destroyed as it is with terrorist hidden places." 6. Cutaway of media 7. SOUNDBITE (English) Bernard Frahi, United Nations Drug Control Program (UNDCP): "Optimistically we can state that it is the beginning of the end to the impunity of drug traffickers who have for too long found refuge in Afghanistan. Finally, we are confident that very soon the new administration will officially declare illegal opium poppy cultivation and drug trafficking in Afghanistan." 8. Cutaway of media STORYLINE: The war against drugs in Afghanistan is far from a lost cause according to the United Nations. Bernard Frahi of the U-N's Drug Control Program (UNDCP) said in Kabul on Wednesday that last week's massive seizure near Turbat, Pakistan represented the first gains in the war against Afghanistan's heroin trade. He said traffickers are worried the stockpiles of processed heroin in Afghanistan will be discovered and destroyed and have been moving unprecedented massive heroin shipments out of Afghanistan in the past two weeks. The seizure on January 7 by soldiers from Pakistan's Anti-Narcotics Force is believed by U-N drug officials to be one of the biggest ever made. The haul - 650 kilograms (1,430 pounds) of heroin and 250 kilograms (550 pounds) of morphine - had an estimated street value of 550 million (US) dollars. Last fall, the U-S-led war against the Taliban disrupted the world's biggest heroin trafficking route, from Afghanistan through Pakistan and onward to Europe. The supply of Afghan heroin - already reduced by an edict late in Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar's rule to ban opium poppy cultivation - slowed to a trickle. But now, with the war all but over and the international community pressuring Afghanistan's new government to launch the first comprehensive crackdown on drugs in decades, farmers are once again growing the opium poppy crops and traffickers are more active. Frahi said the U-N is confident the new Afghan administration will soon declare illegal the cultivation of the opium poppy - the main ingredient of heroin - as well as drug trafficking in Afghanistan. Western dignitaries visiting Afghanistan over the past week, including British Prime Minister Tony Blair and nine U-S senators, have impressed on Prime Minister Hamid Karzai's interim administration that one outcome of the U-S-led war against terrorism must be an end to his country's role as a heroin repository. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...