PAKISTAN: TROOPS ON ALERT AS POPPY GROWERS DEFY BAN

(25 Apr 1998) Urdu/Eng/Nat

Government troops in a remote region in north-western Pakistan have been put on alert after poppy cultivators cancelled an agreement to allow the destruction of their crop.

The Pakistani authorities have banned poppy crops in a bid to stamp out opium cultivation in the country - opium is produced from poppies and then used to make heroin.

The soldiers - backed by artillery and armoured vehicles - are now in position around Dir District, preparing to force crop eradication if necessary.

Tension is mounting in Dir District, with the arrival of yet more government troops.

The soldiers are preparing to implement an operation to ensure the complete eradication of poppy crops in the northwestern region.

Opium - which is used to make heroine - is produced from poppies and the government is hoping to stamp out its cultivation with the ban on crops.

Most of the opium in Pakistan is produced in Dir District, which lies 200 kilometres (120 miles) from Islamabad.

The region's poppy growing area spans three-thousand acres and the livelihoods of thousands of families depend on the crop.

Local elders did forge an agreement with the authorities that the crops would be destroyed, but residents are now reneging on the deal.

Government officials said negotiations with the elders were continuing while the operation to destroy the poppies, which started last week, has been suspended.

Doctor Suhail Altaf, Deputy Commissioner of Dir District, will head any military operation that takes place.

He says the locals had agreed to the eradication.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Once the troops arrived here and the people came to know that the government means business, and it is bent upon eradicating this crop, the local elders they approached us and they agreed to the voluntary destruction of their crop."
SUPER CAPTION: Doctor Suhail Altaf, Deputy Commissioner of Dir District

The provincial government insist they are committed to entirely stamping out Dir's crop.

In the mid 1980s, a Dir Development Programme was set up to provide alternative sources of income for poppy growers.

A total of 920 (m) million rupees (21 (m) million U-S dollars) was allocated to the scheme.

Locals believe the money was misused and embezzled by corrupt government officials.

They accuse the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (U-N-D-C-P) of doing nothing to help their situation.

And now the angry poppy growers are demanding compensation for their lost incomes.

SOUNDBITE: (Urdu)
"What will we do, as these are the only means of livelihood for us. There are no jobs for us, no schools, no hospitals, nothing at all. We will die of hunger. We will become criminals. Our people will have no other option but to resort to illegal ways of earning a living. If compensation and jobs are not given, we will grow poppies next year."
SUPER CAPTION: Haroon Khan, poppy grower

Some local growers though have kept to the agreement and are assisting the military in the destruction of poppy crops.

But hardliners remain resolute in their call for compensation.

This year's opium crop in Dir covers more than one-thousand and 250 hectares (31-hundred acres) and will be the biggest crop for at least two years.

Pakistan is under pressure from the international community to destroy the crop.

It seems prepared to go to any lengths - earlier this month, troops cracking down on opium cultivation used artillery against tribesmen in Mohmand, 50 kilometres (30 miles) south of Dir.

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