TWO WEEKS BEFORE HARVEST, GOVERNMENT ANNOUNCES LAST-MINUTE EFFORT TO WIPE
OUT OPIUM POPPY

KABUL, Afghanistan - The fragile new Afghan government took on a daunting
political and logistical challenge yesterday, vowing to eliminate the
Afghan poppy crop, source in the past of perhaps 70 percent of the world's
opium supply and of much of this poor country's income.

Just two weeks from the harvest of the narcotic-bearing flowers, the
government said it would offer farmers about $500 an acre to destroy the
crop - a fraction of what they can earn by selling the opium, raw material
for heroin.

If farmers don't cooperate by tearing up their crops, joint task forces of
national, provincial and local authorities will do it for them, senior
government adviser Ashraf Ghani Amatzai said.

"Will people be unhappy? Absolutely," he told reporters.

Not only do tens of thousands of Afghan farmers and harvest workers depend
heavily on the trade, but opium dealers are believed to be associated with
some Afghan warlords and other influential figures.

Ghani Amatzai said the government would not hesitate to use force. "We hope
we don't reach that point, but the Ministry of the Interior is fully
engaged to make sure it is carried out," he said.

Government officials did not disclose the details of the enforcement
effort, such as what equipment and personnel would be used to eradicate the
crops. A preliminary U.N. assessment of this year's poppy cultivation -
well over 100,000 acres nationwide - indicates the scope of the challenge,
in a country without even an anti-drug police force.

A decree issued by interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai signaled that
international pressure played a large part in bringing about the
eradication plan.

"Continuation of drug cultivation and trafficking will endanger our ability
to restore our good name and receive support as a legitimate partner of the
international community," it declared.

Starting Monday, the decree said, farmers will be offered $250 per "jirib"
of poppy, an Afghan land measure equaling about one-fifth hectare, or a
half-acre. Poppy farmers this growing season have said they expect at least
$1,700 per jirib of opium.

Ghani Amatzai noted the first harvests of opium would begin in about two
weeks, expected in Nangarhar province, east of Kabul. The harvest in the
southern province of Helmand, Afghanistan's biggest opium producer, will
begin about the same time or slightly later.

"We needed to act very quickly, so that the first crops would not be
harvested," he told reporters. The initial funds for the buy-out will come
from the Afghan administration, he said, and additional aid is promised by
Britain, the European Union and the United States.

The government of the Islamic extremist Taliban, overthrown in a U.S.- led
war last fall, had successfully banned poppy cultivation in 2000,
eliminating an estimated 96 percent of the 2001 crop. But as the hard- line
Taliban government fell last fall, farmers quickly planted poppy for the
spring harvest, believing any new government would be too weak to enforce a
ban.

Officials in poppy-growing areas have said it would be unwise and
impractical to attempt a full-scale eradication program, which they said
might stir unrest and opposition to the fragile new regime.

Other opium-growing countries, in Southeast Asia particularly, were
believed to have filled the production gap caused by the Taliban edict.
Most heroin made from Afghan opium is sold in Europe; American addicts
depend largely on Mexican and Colombian heroin.

The Karzai administration, encouraged by the U.N. Drug Control Program, had
announced a ban on poppy cultivation in January, but that was long after
the seeds were in the ground. The farmers, meanwhile, have spent money on
seed, irrigation water, tractor rental and other expenses.

Ghani Amatzai said the government would immediately institute a program of
labor-intensive projects, especially on roads and irrigation systems, to
help employ farm laborers.