Afghan opium output soars, flooding Europe Middle East with heroin: US
Pastor Dale Morgan
Friday March 2, 3:31 AM
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Afghan opium output soars, flooding Europe Middle East with heroin: US*
Opium production in Afghanistan surged to record levels in 2006,
increasing the flow of heroin to Europe and the Middle East and
undermining the fight against Islamist insurgents, the US reported Thursday.
In its annual report on global narcotics, the State Department linked a
25 percent jump in opium production in Afghanistan during 2006 to the
resurgence of the Taliban militia, which has reasserted control over
swathes of the country from which they were ousted in 2001.
The report also targetted the left-wing administration of Bolivian
President Evo Morales for failing to curb the cultivation of coca,
accused President Hugo Chavez's Venezuela of being "one of the principle
drug-transit countries" in the Americas and warned of a growing use
worldwide of synthetic amphetamine-type drugs.
The congressionally mandated report revealed that despite four years of
anti-narcotics assistance to the government of Afghan President Hamid
Karzai, opium cultivation continues to rise in the country, with output
growing from 4,475 tonnes in 2005 to 5,644 tonnes last year.
The 2006 harvest was valued at 3.1 billion dollars, nearly a third of
Afghanistan's total national product including both legal and illegal
activities, it said, citing UN statistics.
The report blamed the government's failure to curb opium output on the
"limited reach of Afghan law enforcement, endemic corruption and a weak
judicial system".
It also said there was "strong evidence that narcotics trafficking is
linked to the Taliban insurgency," which caught the US government and
its allies by surprise by launching a series of deadly attacks in 2005.
"These links between drug traffickers and anti-government forces
threaten regional stability," it said.
The fundamentalist movement which was ousted from power in 2001 has been
most active in Afghanistan's poor southern regions and is expected to
launch a new "spring" offensive in coming months, despite the presence
of 33,000 NATO troops in the country.
The United States earlier this year announced a massive 10.6 billion
dollars in new aid to bolster the Karzai government, but all but two
billion dollars will go to strengthen security forces and just a
fraction of the rest will be used for anti-narcotics efforts.
The State Department report said the resurgence of Afghan opium
production undermines "the consolidation of democracy and security in
Afghanistan" and could lead to a spike in heroin overdoses in Europe,
Russia and the Middle East.
Among other major opium producers, the report acknowledged efforts by
Burma, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand -- the so-called Golden Triangle
countries -- to curb poppy cultivation.
Presenting the report, Assistant Secretary of State Anne Patterson
hailed Colombia, the source of 90 percent of the world's cocaine, for
its efforts to combat drug trafficking.
"Colombia has shown the political will and tenacity to fight both the
cultivation and trafficking of the drug," she said.
But the report slammed the government of Morales, who remains president
of Bolivia's six coca growers federations, saying coca eradication under
his administration had fallen to its lowest level in 10 years in what it
called a "disquieting" trend.
Washington is due to issue a special review of Bolivia by March 15 which
could lead to the country being designated as having "failed
demonstrably" to combat drug trafficking, a category which could lead to
sanctions.
The report also assailed Venezuela under the virulently anti-US Chavez
for allowing the shift of drug trafficking routes from Colombia to its
territory.
It said Venezuela's "rampant high-level corruption, weak judicial system
and lack of international counter-narcotics cooperation" had spawned a
booming drug transshipment industry.