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NATO Says No To Opium Destruction In Afghanistan

September 13, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has rejected a call from the head of the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime that alliance forces in Afghanistan be ordered to destroy the country's opium industry.

De Hoop Scheffer said on September 12 that it was not in the alliance's mandate to lead the fight against drugs.

UN official Antonio Maria Costa made the call for robust NATO action on September 12 in Brussels while presenting details of the UNODC's latest report on opium cultivation in Afghanistan.

"I plead for NATO to move on in its own responsibility," Costa said. "It is clear that a mandate is not there [for NATO forces to destroy opium crops without such a request from Kabul]. But unless there is recognition that there is a risk coming -- a military risk coming -- from the opium cultivation in the south, I am afraid it would be very difficult to solve the security issue."

However NATO troops currently do not destroy opium crops unless requested to do so by Afghanistan's central government.

The UN report shows Afghan opium cultivation surged by 59 percent this year despite millions of dollars paid in development assistance to wean farmers off the crop.

Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036. www.rferl.org