Afghanistan timeline 1991-2000

July 2000

• Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar issued one of the most internationally friendly edicts of his rule, banning the cultivation of opium as being against Islam, resulting in a 94% deciline in opium production.

February 7, 2000

• International Committee of the Red Cross delegates brought back to Afghanistan 10 passengers of a hijacked Ariana plane who had been freed in Uzbekistan the day before. The passengers, five men, four women and a child, were met by the delegates at the border between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan and were driven to Mazar-i-Sharif, where they were handed over to the local authorities.

1999

• Afghanistan produced 73 percent of the world's opium, according to the U.N. Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention.

July 21, 1998

• 140 detainees were released in Afghanistan under the auspices of the International Committee of the Red Cross ICRC. Half of the detainees were being held by Taliban authorities in Kandahar and the other half by authorities of the Northern Alliance in Panshir[?].

May 30, 1998

• A 6.9-magnitude earthquake based in Hindu Kush mountain range of northern Afghanistan killed more than 5,000 people.