13 February 2004
"Comprehensive Strategy" to Combat Afghanistan Drug Trade Urged
Lawmakers say stability cannot be achieved without addressing problem
By Anthony Kujawa
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- U.S. lawmakers called for a "comprehensive strategy" including increased assistance to help Afghan authorities combat the resurgence of opium production and drug trafficking.
A February 12 House International Relations Committee hearing on the topic "Afghanistan Drugs and Terrorism and U.S. Security Policy" focused attention on the urgent need to combat illicit drug production in Afghanistan.
"Only by addressing the Afghan drug challenge can we make Afghanistan more secure," said Committee Chairman Henry J. Hyde of Illinois in opening remarks.
Opium production in Afghanistan not only undermines Afghan reconstruction but fuels terrorism, said Hyde, and he called for the United States to provide more assistance to combat the production of illicit drugs as part of its larger Afghanistan strategy.
With an estimated 70 percent of the world's opium production originating in Afghanistan, he said, the drug trade generates "vast amounts of illicit monies ripe for the taking by Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, and their terrorist allies."
"Crop substitution programs and aggressive poppy eradication programs must be part of a long-term strategy to curb the flow of Afghan opium onto the world market," said the chairman. But he cautioned that an aggressive crop eradication program is likely to yield "mixed results at best in the short term," given the strength of regional warlords relative to the central government, and fact that the livelihoods of many are dependent upon opium cultivation.
"Not until the [Afghan] central government is able to extend effective political control to more of the country will a crop substitution program be effective," said Hyde.
Testifying before the committee, officials from the Drug Enforcement Agency, the State Department and Defense Department outlined U.S. efforts to support an Afghan-led eradication campaign, to provide police and law enforcement training and to support "alternative livelihoods."
"Failure is not an option, but it is possible. We need to commit ourselves," State Department Coordinator for Afghanistan William B. Taylor told the committee.
"Stability in Afghanistan cannot be achieved without addressing the drug issue, and counternarcotics programs cannot be deferred to a later date," added State Department Assistant Secretary for the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Robert Charles.
Charles said that State Department "alternative livelihoods" projects have had some success, but said "effective sanctions on illicit activity are critical."
"The drug trade is insidious and traffickers are savvy. Simply having alternatives is not enough; licit crops cannot compete with poppy," he said.
"[W]e plan to train 50,000 combined Afghanistan National Police (ANP), Border Police (ANBP) and Highway Police by December 2005," added Charles, outlining efforts to strengthen the capacity of the Afghan government to enforce the law throughout the country.
Also testifying before the committee, U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) Administrator Karen Tandy, who recently returned from Afghanistan on a trip with Charles, said concerted multilateral efforts are required to combat the drug trade.
Tandy called "highly successful" the DEA-led initiative "Operation Containment" -- an information-sharing program among nineteen countries from Central Asia, the Caucuses, Europe and Russia, to deprive drug trafficking organizations of their market access and international terrorist groups of financial support from drugs, precursor chemicals, weapons, ammunition and currency.
Since March 2002, "Operation Containment" has resulted in 23 significant seizures of narcotics and precursor chemicals, disruption of the Galip Kuyucu transportation group, arrests of 15 members of the Attila Ozyildirim heroin trafficking organization and other arrests, she said.
Speaking of the need to strengthen and publicize a State Department "Rewards Program" that offers incentives for information leading to the arrest and conviction of drug traffickers, Representative Mark Steven Kirk said the program should be updated to reflect "growing reliance on the sale of heroin to finance terror."
"The sale of heroin in Afghanistan yields $2.5 billion to drug traffickers and represents at least half of the Afghan economy," said Kirk.
"That is what Mr. [Hamid] Karzai's government is up against," he added.
"I believe the Congress should reform the Rewards Program to include rewards for the arrest of drug kingpins and their lieutenants who are connected to terror," said Kirk, noting that he recently submitted a bipartisan bill with Representative Tom Lantos to reform the program.
"It is obvious that the amount of assistance [to Afghanistan] is absolutely, totally inadequate," added Representative William D. Delahunt of Massachusetts, urging more assistance for Afghanistan.
"There should be a commitment that is far more substantial in terms of support and assistance to the Karzai government than currently exists," he said.
"We've made progress, there is going to be more progress, and we're not going to walk away," added Representative Dana Rorabacher, commenting on the commitment of the U.S. Congress to Afghanistan.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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