Afghanistan: Increased Opium Farming Reported In South

Afghanistan: Increased Opium Farming Reported In South

By Ron Synovitz

PRAGUE, August 21, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- As the Afghan government prepares to host its second counternarcotics conference in Kabul on August 22, with plans to announce new details about its antidrug efforts, Western officials warn that a soon-to-be released UN report on opium farming shows record cultivation this year.

Though UN officials will not comment, Western diplomats tell RFE/RL that the UN Office on Drugs and Crime September 12 report will show a record level of opium-poppy cultivation in Afghanistan this year -- up by more than 40 percent over 2005. BR>
Diplomats who help Kabul with its counternarcotics strategy already are expressing concerns, saying the statistics confirm that more Afghan farmland is being used to grow opium poppies than ever before.

Offering Alternatives To Farmers

Mohammad Mosa Hamid, an adviser for Afghanistan's Counternarcotics Ministry, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that he was surprised to hear what Western diplomats are saying.

"We hear some information from here and there [about increased poppy cultivation this year], but we need to wait until we receive the evidence. And then we can judge whether poppy has been cultivated [at a record level] or not," he said. "I hope it hasn't been cultivated. I do not think that poppy cultivation has increased because we have aid programs distributing seeds for alternative crops."

Hamid explained that the focus of the government's counternarcotics strategy has been to help wean farmers away from growing opium poppies.

"We have been launching such programs this year -- successful programs like providing farmers with alternative livelihoods," Hamid said. "And we have tried to explain to them through other legal ways that the poppy illness is a bad thing. It causes a lot of problems internally and internationally."

The British government has a lead role in supporting Afghanistan's counternarcotics programs. A British government spokesman told RFE/RL that officials in London also want to wait until the new UN statistics are published before commenting.

Southern Violence Hampers Efforts

But privately, British and U.S. officials in Kabul and London say there is no doubt that poppy cultivation has risen significantly since last year, possibly by as much as 40 percent.

Crucially, they say cultivation did not increase across all of Afghanistan's provinces. Eradication efforts have been successful in some parts of the country. But they say the resurgence of Taliban violence in southern Afghanistan this year has prevented eradication efforts from being effective in the most volatile provinces, such as Helmand, which now accounts for more than 40 percent of opium-poppy cultivation nationwide.

Tom Koenigs, the top UN official in Afghanistan, has said that fears of fanning the insurgency have constrained efforts to destroy the poppy crops of impoverished farmers in Helmand. Koenigs says that if foreign troops start destroying poppy fields in Helmand, the effort will lead to a popular backlash that increases both the number of Taliban fighters and their attacks.

For that reason, officials say, little eradication work has been done there by the Afghan government or British soldiers deployed to Helmand this year as part of the expanding NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

The ISAF commander, Lieutenant General David Richards, told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that bringing security to remote provincial areas has been a more immediate priority than opium eradication. "[Counternarcotics] isn't my principal concern," he said. "If we are asked by the government to support an operation to do with narcotics in some way, we will positively look at it. And that is our obligation to them."

Indeed, Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government faced a backlash from farmers in southern Afghanistan last year amid rumors that Western military aircraft were being used to spray poison chemicals on poppy fields.

Richards said the rumors about foreign troops being deployed to destroy poppy fields are not true. "NATO-ISAF is not targeting farmers. We understand exactly that there must be other ways for them to make a living before we stop them -- if we ever got involved with it -- growing their poppy, because they have to feed their families in some way," he said.

Narcotics Must Be Confronted

"We also know that, at the end of the day, narcotics has got to be eradicated from this country or there will never be the peace and stability in the long term," Richards added. "So [counternarcotics efforts are] there. But it is not our immediate agenda. And we have other things that we'd like to do to help people out of their predicament."

Kabul's counternarcotics strategy received international backing in the spring at the London Conference on Afghanistan. That strategy envisions Afghan officials leading the effort with foreign troops providing support only when requested to do so by Kabul.

But the apparent increased cultivation in the south has raised fresh concerns about links between Taliban fighters and Afghan drug lords.

President Karzai has also said that corruption within provincial governments, as well as within the administration in Kabul, has contributed to the problem.

Limited Successes

The Afghan government is due to announce new details later this week about its wide-ranging counternarcotics strategy. New or amended drug laws are anticipated along with the construction of high-security prisons, the creation of special courts for drug barons, and a program to train judges and prosecutors about the narcotics trade.

Some success has resulted from the millions of dollars spent by the United States and Britain to help combat Afghanistan's flourishing drug trade.

The eastern province of Nangarhar, with the help of a strong governor and police chief, reduced opium output by 96 percent last year. Since March of this year, counternarcotics police have raided 10 opium laboratories throughout the country, seizing 1,225 kilograms of heroin and nearly 800 kilograms of opium.

(Farida Hod Saifi of RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan contributed to this report.)

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Afghanistan: Increased Opium Farming Reported In South