Karzai pledges to wipe out drug trade from Afghanistan

KABUL, JANUARY 7: Hamid Karzai, the new leader of Afghanistan, pledged on Sunday to rid his country of drug trafficking but said it would be a very difficult task without investment in the devastated agricultural economy.

US Officials last week accused the Taliban that preceded Karzai’s six-month interim administration of being a ‘‘drug trafficking government’’ and said Washington hoped to get rid of opium stockpiles in Afghanistan and stop farmers from planting more poppies.

Until last year, Afghanistan was the world’s main producer of poppies, which are turned into opium and further refined into heroin. Two years ago the Taliban ordered a partial ban on poppy production and last year outlawed it altogether.

But US Officials said that although the Taliban had banned growing poppies, it was still stockpiling opium.

In a television interview, Karzai estimated the number of ‘‘hardcore’’ Al Qaeda and Taliban fighters being sought in Afghanistan at no more than 35 and he said he would visit the United States ‘‘in the coming month or two’’.

When the war in Afghanistan was launched after the September 11 attacks on the United States, it was estimated there were tens of thousands of Taliban an Al Qaeda fighters in the country. Yet only a few hundred have been taken into custody.

Karzai said most of the Taliban fighters are ‘‘just commonpeople (who have) all gone back to their homes ... (and are) not responsible for anything’’.

‘‘What was important was this hard-core of the radical terrorist elements that were... leading this war, that were leading this carnage against all other people, and they should be arrested,’’ he said.

He said the hard-core group, including Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, ‘‘may not number more than 30 or 35’’ and reiterated earlier vows they would be caught.

The White House announced last week that Karzai had been invited to make an official visit to Washington, and Karzai said he planned to visit ‘‘very soon,’’ in February or possibly earlier. (Reuters)