Opium war jeopardizing Afghan future
Pastor Dale Morgan
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*Opium war jeopardizing Afghan future, report says*
James Sturcke
Tuesday September 5, 2006
Guardian Unlimited
British and US efforts to decimate the opium industry in Afghanistan
have "hijacked" nation-building attempts in the country, and are driving
support for the Taliban, a report said today.
The highly critical study of the five years since the US-led invasion
found that Afghans are starving to death despite international donor
pledges and that the foreign military presence was "fuelling resentment
and fear" among the local population.
The report, by the Senlis Council, an international policy thinktank,
said that the US-led international community had "failed to achieve
stability and security" in the war-torn country and that attacks were
perpetuated on a daily basis.
"Prioritising military-based security, the United States' and United
Kingdom's focus on counter terrorism initiatives and militaristic
responses to Afghanistan's opium crisis has undermined the local and
international development community's ability to respond to
Afghanistan's many poverty-related challenges," the report said.
""By focusing aid funds away from development and poverty relief, failed
counter-narcotics policies have hijacked the international community's
nation-building efforts and undermined Afghanistan's democratically
elected government. Poppy cultivation is a food survival strategy for
millions of Afghans, and the United States' and the United Kingdom's
poppy eradication policies are fuelling violence and insecurity."
The report concluded that poverty was driving people to support the
Taliban which now had a "strong psychological and de facto military
control" over half of Afghanistan. It also found that the international
military coalitions in Afghanistan - the US-led Operation Enduring
Freedom and the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf)
- were fuelling resentment and fear.
"The distinctions between them are extremely blurred, with the Nato-led
Isaf is now constantly engaged in war operations. Afghans see the
international military coalitions as taking sides in a civil war
situation, and as Nato-Isaf troops retreat to their fortified compounds
in southern Afghanistan, locals perceive that the Taliban-led insurgents
are once again defeating global military powers."
The report, called Afghanistan Five Years Later: The Return of the
Taliban, is published after British forces experienced their bloodiest
few days in the country, with 15 military personnel killed in an air
crash near Kandahar and a suicide attack in Kabul. The new chief of
general staff, General Sir Richard Dannatt, has also said the army can
only just cope with the demands being placed on it by the government.
The Senlis Council report also expressed fears about the "growing
scepticism" with which Afghans see their government, perceiving it to be
accountable to international donors rather than local voters. It said
that military expenditure outpaced development and reconstruction
spending by 900% and that, because the fight against poverty has not
been prioritised, "the international community's democracy-building
efforts are collapsing as Afghans starve".
Three factors were contributing to the current situation, the report
found. The international military presence being seen as an invading
force rather than one of stabilisation, the "failed" anti-opium policy,
and the failure of "an artificial reconstruction agenda" to address real
needs of local people.
The 248-page report makes three recommendations, namely that emergency
poverty relief is made a high priority, that there is a "complete
overhaul" of the counter-narcotics strategies and that military
operations take a back seat and provide support to development
interventions.
The Senlis Council is an international policy think tank which aims to
provide innovative analysis, ideas and proposals on foreign policy,
security, development and counter-narcotics strategies.
It is funded by the Network of European Foundations, a group of 11
trusts and charities including the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust and
CAF, the Charities Aid Foundation.