Afghanistan puts drugs to the torch

Afghans gathered on a football pitch today and watched soldiers burn a pyre topped with more than half a ton of poppies today - a public display of the government’s commitment to purge the country of drugs.

The destruction of the poppies, from which opium is derived, was the first in Kabul. Interior Minister Taj Mohammed Wardak, who organised two drug burnings when he was governor of Paktia province, said the destruction would be repeated as more drugs were seized.

‘‘The government of Afghanistan will not allow the growing of poppies, nor the manufacturing or smuggling of drugs,’’ he told officials before the pyre of sticks and poppies was doused with paraffin and set on fire on a Kabul football pitch.

Wardak said the poppies were seized at a market in eastern Nangarhar province. He said more poppies were taken from farmers, who were compensated because they had planted their crop before a January decree made growing the plant illegal. There will be no compensation in the future, he said.

‘‘The government is determined to stop the trade of narcotics,’’ he said. He said drug traders would be punished and all manufacturing plants searched and destroyed.

Antonio Costa, executive director of the UN office for drug control and crime prevention, called the drug seizure and burning ‘‘an Afghan government success.’’

Afghanistan was once the source of 70 percent of the world’s opium.