Afghan Opium Crops at Record Levels
Pastor Dale Morgan
Nov 2, 12:34 PM EST
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Afghan Opium Crops at Record Levels*
By JASON STRAZIUSO
Associated Press Reporter
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Afghan farmers now planting opium poppies
will probably reap a harvest comparable to this year's record crop, in
part because insurgents control wide swaths of the south, preventing
effective counter-narcotics work, officials said Thursday.
Planting is under way in southern regions responsible for the bulk of
the estimated 6,100 tons of Afghan opium produced in the 2005-06 growing
season. Anti-drug officials say that despite anti-cultivation campaigns,
they foresee little improvement by harvest time next spring.
A senior U.S. official said the new poppy crop probably will be similar
to the one planted a year ago, "maybe a little under - we were so high
last year." He spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not
authorized to speak on the record.
Drug production has skyrocketed since a U.S.-led offensive toppled the
Taliban regime five years ago for giving refuge to Osama bin Laden and
al-Qaida camps. Last spring's poppy harvest accounted for 92 percent of
the global opium supply and was enough to make 610 tons of heroin - more
than all the world's addicts consume in a year.
Police and government officials are deeply implicated in the trade,
which adds to the corruption and lawlessness threatening Afghanistan's
fledgling democracy. Taliban militiamen had all but eradicated opium
cultivation by 2000 but now profit from it, protecting poppy farmers.
Deteriorating security in the countryside makes it difficult to monitor
how much poppy has been planted, the U.S. official said. Taliban-led
militants have increased attacks this year, particularly in
Afghanistan's southern opium heartland.
Gen. Khodaidad, a deputy minister in Afghanistan's Ministry of
Counter-Narcotics, said some provincial governors and police chiefs have
been doing effective anti-drug work.
"But unfortunately, in some provinces, especially in the south and
southwest, we haven't been doing as well," said Khodaidad, who like many
Afghans uses one name. "The reason is very clear - fighting. Some of the
districts are under the influence of the Taliban or al-Qaida."
Khodaidad said he hoped for a successful anti-cultivation campaign this
fall followed by an eradication campaign in the new year, but he said he
couldn't promise a reduction in the harvest. "I can tell you there will
be no increase," he said.
The United Nations' anti-drug chief said recently that proceeds from
Afghan opium production are being used to finance terrorist groups. The
U.S. official said the country's drug trade was a $3.1 billion business
this year and it doesn't "take much of that to fund terrorism."
Seeking to counter corruption that hinders anti-drug efforts, the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Agency is training special units of Afghan policemen
who must pass polygraph exams and investigations of their backgrounds,
Karen P. Tandy, the DEA administrator, said during a visit Sunday.
"DEA is very accustomed to working in countries where corruption is
rampant," she said. "We have a method that has been extremely
successful. ... You have patriots in every country who care about the
future of their country, and that is no less true here in Afghanistan."
Khodaidad said President Hamid Karzai has warned government officials
they will be removed if they help drug trafficking. He said a district
chief and an administrator from the same district in Badakhshan, a
remote and rugged northern province favored by drug producers, were
recently fired.
The U.S. official said if there is no reduction in the opium harvest
this year, Afghanistan would come under strong U.S. pressure to start
spraying poppy fields with herbicide, an idea that Afghans, including
Karzai, deeply oppose because of fears the chemicals could harm people.
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Associated Press writer Rahim Faiez contributed to this report.