[Shadow_Group] Rise in Afghanistan drug production alarms US

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

Rise in Afghanistan drug production alarms US

FROM:
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=43386<http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=43386>
[World News]: Washington, Nov 19 : Alarmed over a 60
percent rise in opium production in Afghanistan over
the past year, the US has suggested creating "counter
narcotics battalions" to target and destroy drug
producing labs and storage depots in that country. 

House International Relations Committee chairman Henry
J. Hyde, in his comments Thursday on a UN report on
the 60 percent increase in Afghan opium production,
attributed it to lack of a coherent and coordinated US
anti-drug strategy. 

"Drug production and smuggling are a chief source of
income for anti-government forces and terrorists
targeting coalition troops in Afghanistan," the
Republican from Illinois said in a statement. 

"We should move expeditiously to create
counter-narcotics battalions - modelled on those
fielded by the Turkish government - to target and
destroy heroin production labs and opium storage
depots until Afghan drug fighting institutions are in
place and operational." 

To discourage cultivation of opium, the US and Europe
should embrace a trade preference to give easy access
to Afghan products in US and European markets to
encourage sustainable development necessary to
stabilize the country, Hyde said. 

--Indo-Asian News Service



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