Military

22 March 2005

Opium Production Threatens Afghanistan's Future, Officials Say

State, Defense, and drug enforcement principles testify to Congress

By Michael OToole
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- Three key U.S. officials testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on International Relations March 17 about what one called "the greatest challenge facing Afghanistan today" -- opium production and trafficking in that country.

Each of the three -- Ambassador Maureen Quinn, Afghanistan coordinator at the Department of State; Mary Beth Long, deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics; and Michael A. Braun, chief of operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) -- agreed that the problem threatens Afghanistan's future and has a global impact.

Quinn listed progress made in Afghanistan since the Taliban government was overthrown in 2001.  Specifically, she noted the October 2004 national assembly elections in which more than 8 million Afghans voted, including 3.2 million women, as well as a drop in overall violence, the implementation of new security institutions and "enormous strides in organizing a legitimate, market-based economy."

Despite all this, the narcotics situation has worsened, according to Quinn, who quoted International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates that drug revenue is about 60 percent of the country's economy.  The ambassador noted that narcotics cultivation and trafficking add to governmental corruption at all levels, and that efforts to address the problem are further hampered by a nascent legal system and an underdeveloped, overcrowded penal system.

Quinn acknowledged that many Afghan farmers might have no recourse other than planting opium poppies to support themselves, due to the enormous destruction and disruption of normal life in the country after more than 25 years of conflict.  She also noted “the lack of legitimate income streams, and the limited enforcement capacity of the national government."

Nonetheless, the ambassador said she was "guardedly optimistic" about measures taken so far by the government of President Hamid Karzai. They include the creation of a Ministry of Counternarcotics and an eight-part plan focusing on institution-building, public information, alternative livelihoods, interdiction and law enforcement, criminal justice, eradication, demand reduction and treatment, and regional cooperation, she said.

The ambassador said that for fiscal year 2005, the Bush administration has requested a total of $773.5 million in supplemental funding for a counternarcotics program in Afghanistan.  This effort is intended to produce immediate results, according to Quinn, while concurrently building the Afghan government’s capacity to conduct counternarcotics efforts on its own by training judges, prosecutors and police.  She also cited efforts by the British government in retraining Afghans for alternative livelihoods.  

DEA's Braun gave the committee more specifics on the counternarcotics effort.  He announced the implementation in Afghanistan of foreign-deployed advisory and support teams (FAST), who "provide guidance and conduct bilateral investigations to identify and dismantle illicit drug trafficking and money laundering organizations. "  He added that under the existing “Operation Containment” program with local law enforcement, "significant opium and heroin seizures" have already occurred in the region. 

Braun said his organization has joined with coalition partners, the State Department, and the Department of Defense in the U.S. Embassy Kabul Counternarcotics Implementation -- or “Five Pillar" -- Plan.  The elements of that plan are public information, alternative livelihoods, law enforcement, interdiction, and eradication.  DEA's primary role in this plan falls under the “interdiction" pillar, with the agency assisting with the destruction of clandestine labs and seizing precursor chemicals, opium, and opiate stockpiles, Braun said. 

Long, of the Defense Department, reminded the committee of the global impact of the problem, saying, "Afghanistan is the world’s leading source of heroin, supplying mostly regional markets, Europe, and Russia.”  Long cited U.N. data stating that in 2004, Afghanistan was responsible for 87 percent of the world’s illicit opium production.  

She also saluted President Karzai's commitment, recalling that he had declared to provincial Afghan governors that “the scourge of drug trafficking in Afghanistan was worse than the Soviet invasion, and that the jihad against this vile threat was analogous to the Afghan’s jihad against the Soviets."

Long said U.S. troops in Afghanistan are authorized to conduct military operations against drug-trafficking targets "when those military operations support our stability mission."  Since July 2004, according to Long, " there have been 19 reported instances of U.S. military forces encountering drugs in the course of military operations and either destroying or transferring the drugs to the appropriate Afghan authorities." 

U.S. forces also are assisting Afghan authorities at border drug-transit points along routes to Iran, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan, and providing helicopter support to interdiction efforts, Long said.

To accomplish these goals, Long said the Department of Defense has requested $257 million in supplemental funding to continue counternarcotics efforts in Afghanistan -- in addition to $15.4 million currently budgeted in fiscal year 2005.

"Narcotics trafficking not only poses challenges to our efforts to defeat extremist and terrorist forces," she said.  "It also is a threat to the stability and legitimacy of the Afghan government."

"This is a long term problem," said Quinn, "[one] that will require continued, focused attention by the Afghan government and the international community."

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)