Afghan opium cultivation hits a record
Pastor Dale Morgan
Afghan opium cultivation hits a record *
By FISNIK ABRASHI Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, August 16, 2006 2:28 p.m. ET
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Opium cultivation in Afghanistan has hit
record levels _ up by more than 40 percent from 2005 _ despite hundreds
of millions in counternarcotics money, Western officials told The
Associated Press.
The increase could have serious repercussions for an already grave
security situation, with drug lords joining the Taliban-led fight
against Afghan and international forces.
A Western anti-narcotics official in Kabul said about 370,650 acres of
opium poppy was cultivated this season _ up from 257,000 acres in 2005 _
citing their preliminary crop projections. The previous record was
323,700 acres in 2004, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.
"It is a significant increase from last year ... unfortunately, it is a
record year," said a senior U.S. government official based in Kabul, who
like the other Western officials would speak only on condition of
anonymity because of the sensitive topic.
Final figures, and an estimate of the yield of opium resin from the
poppies, will be clear only when the U.N. agency completes its
assessment of the crop, based on satellite imagery and ground surveys.
Its report is due in September.
The U.N. reported last year that Afghanistan produced an estimated 4,500
tons of opium _ enough to make 450 tons of heroin _ nearly 90 percent of
world supply.
This year's preliminary findings indicate a failure in attempts to
eradicate poppy cultivation and continuing corruption among provincial
officials and police _ problems acknowledged by President Hamid Karzai.
Karzai told Fortune magazine in a recent interview that "lots of people"
in his administration profited from the narcotics trade and that he had
underestimated the difficulty of eradicating opium production.
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime estimate that opium accounted for 52
percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product in 2005.
"Now what they have is a narco-economy. If they do not get corruption
sorted they can slip into being a narco-state," the U.S. official warned.
Opium cultivation has surged since the ouster of the Taliban in late
2001. The former regime enforced an effective ban on poppy growing by
threatening to jail farmers _ virtually eradicating the crop in 2000.
But Afghan and Western counternarcotics officials say Taliban-led
militants are now implicated in the drug trade, encouraging poppy
cultivation and using the proceeds to help fund their insurgency.
"(That) kind of revenue from that kind of crop aids and abets the
enemy," Chief Master Sgt. Curtis L. Brownhill, a senior adviser to the
head of the U.S. Central Command, during a recent visit to Afghanistan.
"They count on having that sort of resource and money."
Afghanistan has seen its deadliest bout of fighting this year since
U.S.-backed forces toppled the Taliban for harboring Osama bin Laden.
Officials believe the insurgency, most vicious in the south _
Afghanistan's main poppy belt _ includes die-hard Taliban, warlords and
drug lords and smugglers.
Fears of fanning the insurgency has constrained efforts to destroy the
poppy crops of impoverished farmers _ particularly in Helmand, where the
area being cultivated for poppies has increased most sharply. The
province now accounts for more than 40 percent of the poppy cultivation
nationwide.
"We know that if we start eradicating the whole surface of poppy
cultivation in Helmand, we will increase the activity of the insurgency
and increase the number of insurgents," said Tom Koenigs, the top U.N.
official in Afghanistan.
He said the international community needs to provide alternative
livelihoods for farmers, but warned against expecting quick results.
"The problem has increased, and the remedy has to adjust," he told
reporters recently.
Since the fall of the Taliban, the international community, led by the
U.S. and Britain, has invested hundreds of millions of dollars to combat
the drugs trade.
There have been some successes. Nangahar province, with the help of a
strong governor and police chief, reduced opium output by 96 percent in
2005. Since March, anti-drug police units have raided 10 drug labs
throughout the country, seizing 2,700 pounds of heroin and nearly 1,763
pounds of opium.
Next week, the Afghan government will present a wide-ranging anti-drugs
strategy. Officials are moving to amend laws, train judges and
prosecutors, build high security prisons and establish special courts
for drug barons and senior drug smugglers.
This year's increased poppy cultivation follows a 21 percent drop the
previous year, suggesting the government has not followed through on
warnings to farmers against planting poppies. Although 37,065 acres of
poppies were eradicated this year, according to the Ministry for
Counternarcotics, a campaign by police to destroy crops fell short of
expectation.
Gen. Khodaidad, a top official at the ministry, said virtually all
cultivated land in Helmand _ including government-owned land _ has been
planted with opium poppies.
"We expected a large number (crop) this year but Helmand unfortunately
exceeded even our predictions," the U.S. official said.