Heroin figures

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

So, Whatever happened to Turkey, like, it just stopped being a major
exporter because its in the US interests now? 90% seems a little high to
me. What do you think?

"As much as 90 percent of the heroin used in Europe originates in
Afghanistan.  Although most of the heroin sold in the United
> States comes from Colombia, American officials worry that increased
> quantities of Afghan drugs will find their way here."


ncgub wrote:
> 
> Burma News    Part I            November 30, 1999
> 
> Excerpts from "The Holy Men of Heroin"
> 
> Afghanistan Has Been Ruined by War.  But It Does One Job Better Than Any
> Place
> 
> Else in the World:  Produce Opium.
> 
> By Jeffrey Bartholet And Steve Levine
> 
> Afghanistan, wrecked by 20 years of war and now ruled by Islamic radicals,
> has one perverse claim to success.  Thanks to this year's bumper poppy crop,
> the country has become the world's undisputed leader in the production of
> opium.  The United Nations estimates that Afghanistan accounted for an
> astonishing three quarters of global output in 1999, eclipsing the Golden
> Triangle region of Burma, Laos and Thailand.  Afghan heroin is sold in
> neighboring Pakistan, which has nearly 2 million addicts, and also in Iran,
> Central Asia and Russia.  As much as 90 percent of the heroin used in Europe
> originates in Afghanistan.  Although most of the heroin sold in the United
> States comes from Colombia, American officials worry that increased
> quantities of Afghan drugs will find their way here.
> 
> This presents policymakers in Washington and other capitals with a dilemma.
> How do you combat drug production in a country that, even if you ignore the
> heroin trade, already is treated like a pariah?  The Islamic Taliban
> militia,
> which administers roughly 85 percent of Afghanistan, claims that it would
> like to cooperate with drug-eradication efforts, but it lacks credibility.
> The government is recognized by only three countries:  Pakistan, Saudi
> Arabia
> and the United Arab Emirates.  It practices what the West calls "gender
> apartheid" by severely subjugating women, including forbidding them from
> working and attending school.  Its forces have committed human-rights abuses
> against minorities, including roundups of ethnic Hazaras, some of whom have
> disappeared.  And it harbors Islamic extremists like Osama bin Laden, the
> alleged ringleader behind the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa last
> year that killed 224 people.
> 
> SOURCE  Newsweek
> 
> CO:  Newsweek
> 
> ST:  New York
> 
> IN:  PUB
> 
> SU:
> 
> 11/28/1999 14:25 EST http://www.prnewswire.com
> ------------------------------ ---------------------
> Philippine Daily Inquirer               November 29, 1999
> 
> Excerpts from -- Opinion Section, "Letter from Mindanao"
> 
> Reflections from the city of Bangkok (Pills)
> 
> By Carolyn O. Arguillas
> 
> Asean leaders gathered in Manila for a summit to focus on ''sustaining
> economic recovery.''
> 
> It was a good thing activists from various Asean countries held a ''people's
> summit'' in a music bar in Manila, urging Asean leaders to ''clean up its
> backyard when it comes to the human rights record.''
> 
> The ''people's summit'' expressed alarm over the human rights abuses in
> Burma
> and Indonesia, the Associated Press reported yesterday. The report, however,
> did not provide other details except to say the group demanded, among
> others,
> ''the alleviation of the impoverished majority of Asean peoples.'' The
> report
> also quoted the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development as saying harsh
> national security laws ''have been used to arbitrarily arrest, torture and
> detain anyone suspected to be a threat to national security.''
> 
> It is almost Dec. 10, International Human Rights Day. Yes, we ought to
> condemn the human rights abuses in Burma and Indonesia but there is a crying
> need to condemn, too, the human rights abuses in other countries, including
> ours, abuses spawned by the governments' desire for sweeping economic
> reforms
> or ''sustaining economic recovery.''
> 
> Perhaps owing to the experience of martial law, human rights abuses in our
> country are still viewed merely as the arrests, tortures, killings through
> counter-insurgency operations; the threats to human rights brought about by
> this rehashed proposal to have a national ID system, etc. . . .
> 
> Even our Commission on Human Rights (CHR) focuses only on political rights.
> 
> But the financial crisis that swept across Asia beginning July 1997 actually
> spawned more human rights abuses, again, victimizing the poor.
> 
> How many thousands of marginalized Filipinos have been displaced not by
> counter-insurgency operations but by the conversion of agricultural lands
> into industrial or tourism estates or the entry of mining firms? (And how
> many more if the constitutional amendments are to be passed?)
> 
> CHR Commissioner Nasser Marohomsalic, one of the speakers in the Bangkok
> seminar sponsored by the Singapore-based Asian Media Information and
> Communication Centre, said they proposed in 1996 to include the CHR for
> membership in the Regional Development Councils (which endorse so-called
> development projects) to factor in human rights concerns into the
> government's economic plans.
> 
> The CHR's proposal, obviously a laudable one which human rights activists
> should push for, was turned down. Marohomsalic declined to say why.
> 
> I can only surmise: having a CHR representative in the economic planning
> boards is likely to be viewed by government, foreign and domestic
> investors--as obstacles.
> 
> ---------------------------- End of Part I -----------------------------