By IANS/RIA Novosti,
Kabul : An unknown disease has destroyed almost half of Afghanistan’s opium crop, and British and US troops are being suspected of spreading the disease.
The disease, which causes opium poppy flowers to change from red to yellow and then dry up, has spread over plantations in Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan provinces, just before the harvest, a UN Office on Drugs and Crime official said Thursday.
Afghanistan produces 92 percent of the world’s opium, in around 42,000 acres of land in the country’s 17 provinces, mainly in the southern region.
Opium farmers are suspecting British and US troops in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan of spreading the disease.
The official said a fungus that kills poppy plants was discovered on leaves of fruit trees and cereals several months ago, but little attention was paid to the discovery. Samples of the fungus have now been sent to Kabul, where examination is under way to discover the origin of the disease.
An estimated 90 percent of heroin consumed in Russia is trafficked from Afghanistan via Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Russia, where over 40,000 people die every year in drug-related cases, has repeatedly raised alarm over insufficient anti-drug measures taken by the ISAF.