Other Presidential Documents increase. There were also increases in the refining of opium into heroin and in drug trafficking from Afghanistan into neighboring countries. The largest of Afghanistan's factions, the Tallban, which controls 85-90 percent of Afghanistan and 97 percent of the area where opium is cultivated, rives significant income from every phase of drug production and traf- ficking. In spite of its own 1\365\3657 ban on the cultivation of opium poppy, the Tallban acknowledge they tax the crop at about l0 percent, and allow it to be sold in open bazaars. Crop taxation imparts legitimacy to opium cultivation and distribution, and means that the Tallban benefits directly from the entire opium business. The Tallban also receives payments di- rectly from traffickers. The United States Government (USG) has spoken about the drug problem directly with Tallban officials and indirectly through the UNDCP. We have repeatedly urged the Tallban to enforce its \177997 ban on opium poppy cul- tivation. The Taliban response was at least a 23 percent increase in opium production over \177998. We also urged the Taliban to honor its commitments to reduce poppy cultivation in exchange for the delivery of alternative de- velopment assistance. But in a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) proiect area receiving generous USG funding, poppy cultivation surged 68 percent, according to a UNDCP survey. Heroin labs are proliferating throughout Afghanistan, particularly near international borders. The Tallban claims success for some counter-drug measures. According to the UNDCP, the Tallban destroyed 34 drug laboratories. The Tallban also has made unverified claims of seizures of 500 kg of opium, 70 kg of heroin, and \177200 liters of acetic anhydride and other heroin production chemicals. The Tallban Leader, Mullah Omar, who promulgated the \177997 ban on opium cultivation, ordered a one-third nation-wide reduction in poppy cul- tivation for the 1999-2000 growing season but, as noted, past commitments were not honored. Overall, there was a sharp increase in poppy cultivation, in refining of opium into heroin, and in trafficking of illicit opiates in Afghanistan. There is a growing body of evidence that the largest of Afghanistan's factions, the Tallban, is fully complicit in every phase of drug production and traf- ficking. Sharp increases in large-scale opium cultivation and trafficking in Afghanistan, plus the failure of the authorities to initiate an appropriate law enforcement response, preclude a determination that Afghanistan has taken adequate steps on its own or that it has sufficiently cooperated with USG counter-drug efforts to meet the goals and obiectives of the UN \177988 Drug Convention, to which Afghanistan is a party. In the absence of verifiable and unambiguous steps by the Tallban to stop the promotion of poppy cultivation (such as an end to the opium crop tax), the United States and other concerned countries are compelled to redirect their counter-drug efforts to interdiction and border control strategies in surrounding coun- tries. The Bahamas The Bahamas is a maior transit country for drugs en route to the United States from South America and the Caribbean. The Government of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas (GCOB) and the USG continue to enioy a productive counter-drug working relationship. The Bahamas is a party to the \177988 UN Drug Convention, and the GCOB works to meet its goals and obiectives as well as those of U.S.-Bahamas bi- 359
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