Ópiové polia sa rozrastajú aj v Iraku
Farmárov klasické plodiny neuživia, preto sa opätovne obracajú k pestovaniu ópia, z ktorého sa následne vyrába heroín.
The cultivation of opium poppies whose product is turned into heroin is spreading rapidly across Iraq as farmers find they can no longer make a living through growing traditional crops.
The shift by Iraqi farmers to producing opium was first revealed by last May and is a very recent development. The first poppy fields, funded by drug smugglers who previously supplied Saudi Arabia and the Gulf with heroin from Afghanistan, were close to the city of Diwaniyah in southern Iraq. The growing of poppies has now spread to Diyala, which is one of the places in Iraq where al-Qa’ida is still resisting US and Iraqi government forces. The speed with which farmers are turning to poppies is confirmed by the Iraqi news agency al-Malaf Press, which says that opium is now being produced around the towns of Khalis, Sa’adiya, Dain’ya and south of Baladruz, pointing out that these are all areas where al-Qa’ida is strong.
Al-Qa’ida is in control of many of the newly established opium farms and has sometimes taken the land of farmers it has killed, said a local source. At Buhriz, American military forces destroyed the opium farm and drove off al-Qa’ida last year but it later returned. “No one can get inside the farm because it is heavily guarded,” said the source, adding that the area devoted to opium in Diyala is still smaller than that in southern Iraq around Amara and Majar al-Kabir.
Iraq has not been a major consumer of drugs but heroin from Afghanistan has been transited from Iran and then taken to Basra from where it is exported to the rich markets of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Gulf. Under Saddam Hussein, state security in Basra was widely believed to control local drug smuggling through the city.
The growing and smuggling of opium will be difficult to stop in Iraq because much of the country is controlled by criminalised militias.
Although opium has not been grown in many of these areas in Iraq in recent history, some of the earliest written references to opium come from ancient Iraq. It was known to the ancient Sumerians as early as 3400BC as the “Hul Gil” or “joy plant” and there are mentions of it on clay tablets found in excavations at the city of Nippur just east of Diwaniyah.
Zdroj: www.commondreams.org/
20.01.2008