| UN Wire
May 29, 2002
AFGHANISTAN: U.N., U.K. Developing Anti-Opium Fungus, Newspaper Reports
The London Times reported Sunday that the United Kingdom and the United
Nations have "secret plans" to destroy Afghanistan's opium crop
using a fungus that kills poppies but does not harm other plants and
animals. According to the newspaper, the $1.3 million project has been
carried out by the British Drugs and International Crime Department with
U.N. funding.
The Times quoted a British government source as saying "whole
fields withered and died" in tests of the fungus in Tajikistan and
Kyrgyzstan. "It is a potent weapon. We're just waiting for the go-
ahead," the source said. According to a confidential Foreign Office
note cited by the Times , "Opium ... will be destroyed. ... It is
possible to imagine Afghanistan without a drug industry for the first time
in a decade."
Afghan farmers are now being paid to have their poppy fields destroyed,
but no more money has been made available to continue that system. The
Times reported the fungus could be used if incentives do not lead to
significant reductions in crops.
Development of the fungus began four years ago at a former Soviet
bioweapons plan in Uzbekistan, and the newspaper reports the United
Kingdom is concerned it could be accused of using a biological weapon
against Afghanistan if the fungus is used. U.N. scientists cited by the
Times said the fungus occurs naturally and does not spread (Nicholas
Rufford, London Times, May 26).
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