[Shadow_Group] Soaring drug production threatens stability in Afghanistan

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Huge Afghan poppy crop raises fear of 'narco-state'
>From Rory Watson in Brussels 
A boom in opium production threatens to wreck
stability
 
FROM:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1364976,00.html<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1364976,00.html>
THREE years after the Taleban were overthrown,
Afghanistan leads the world in the production of
illegal recreational drugs. Opium farming soared by 64
per cent last year, prompting fears that it could
undermine moves to bring stability to the country and
turn it instead into a "narco-state". 

A United Nations report released yesterday shows that
opium cultivation has spread to all 32 provinces,
making narcotics the main engine of economic growth.
The opium economy, valued at $2.8 billion (£1.55
billion), represents 60 per cent of Afghanistan's
gross domestic product. Presenting the findings,
Antonio Mario Costa, executive director of the United
Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said: 
 
"With 131,000 hectares (324,000 acres) dedicated to
opium farming this year, Afghanistan has established a
double record - the highest drug cultivation in the
country's history, and the largest in the world. 

"Corruption in the public sector, the diehard ambition
of local warlords and the complicity of local
investors are becoming a factor in Afghan life," he
said. 

Despite the huge increase in the land set aside for
farming poppies - which supply the main ingredient for
heroin - the actual growth in production from 2003 was
only 17 per cent because of bad weather and disease.
Even so, the total output of 4,200 tonnes of opium was
only marginally below the record 4,600 tonnes
harvested under the Taleban in 1999 and represents 87
per cent of world production of opium. 

Most of the drugs, turned into heroin using imported
chemical precursors, are smuggled across the Pakistan
border, where Taleban and al-Qaeda forces in hiding
demand protection and transit fees. The narcotics are
eventually delivered to the Netherlands for
distribution across the Continent. 

The drugs explosion in Afghanistan runs counter to
trends elsewhere in the world, where output is
decreasing on every continent. According to the UN
agency, cocaine production in the Andes region has
fallen by 30 per cent in three years, and in
South-East Asia opium production has decreased by 75
per cent. 

Signor Costa said that it would be an error to abandon
Afghanistan to opium after the country had been
reclaimed from the Taleban. He added that opium
cultivation, which now involves 10 per cent of the
country's population, could "ultimately incinerate
everything - democracy, reconstruction and stability".
Nato and the coalition forces are under pressure to
take tougher action against the traffickers. 

Bill Rammell, a British Foreign Office Minister, said:
"A change is taking place. Troops will now destroy
seizures and hand over suspects. We need to increase
the number of arrests and send a strong message to
police and government officials that it is not
business as usual." 

Britain is leading efforts to fight the drugs trade,
as part of moves to establish democracy in
Afghanistan. It has earmarked £70 million for a
three-year campaign, already under way, to crush the
heroin trade. 

Mr Rammell confirmed that Britain would fully back
Hamid Karzai, recently elected President, who has made
the clampdown on drugs a priority. As part of the
strategy, the Government is hoping to create
alternative livelihoods for farmers, although
persuading them to change crops will not be easy when
for one hectare of opium they can receive ten times as
much as they get for wheat. Britain is also helping to
create an effective criminal justice system by
training investigators, prosecutors and judges, and
giving advice on building high-security court and
prison facilities. 

Yesterday the United States confirmed that it would
spend an extra $780 million next year on the fight
against drugs in Afghanistan by destroying poppy
fields and providing alternative employment.




 



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