17 June 2003
U.N. Says Afghanistan Needs More Help to End Illicit Drug Production
(Security Council discusses situation in Afghanistan) (710) By Judy Aita Washington File United Nations Correspondent United Nations -- Calling opium production in Afghanistan "a vicious circle which we need to beat," the head of the U.N. drug program said June 17 that opium cultivation appears to have spread to new areas of the country. In a briefing to the Security Council, Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said Afghanistan remains the top illicit opium producer in the world and requires far greater financial help from the international community than has so far been forthcoming. Costa said the lack of stability and security in Afghanistan is undermining the Karzai Government's commitment to controlling the cultivation of the opium poppy, trafficking, and drug abuse in the country. "Afghanistan now faces an historic challenge," Costa said. "The establishment of an effective rule of law. The government commitment ... can be turned into real progress only if stability and security spread throughout the country." "The task to rid Afghanistan of the drug economy requires much greater political, security, and financial capital than presently is available to assist the rural areas affected by opium production and, above all, to improve the central government's ability to implement the opium production ban," he said. Costa said that in 2002 poppy cultivation in Afghanistan was estimated at 74,000 hectares yielding 3,400 tons of opium from five provinces in the northern, eastern and southern parts of the country. According to U.N. drug program estimates the 2003 opium cultivation "appears to have spread to new areas while a decrease has taken place in the traditional provinces of Helmand, Qandahar, Nangarhar and Oruzgan. Therefore ... neither the surface under cultivation nor the volume of output are likely to change significantly." Opium prices have skyrocketed in recent years making the value of Afghanistan's 20002 crop $1.2 billion -- an amount that matches the total assistance given to the country last year by the international community, the U.N. drug offficial pointed out. Remnants of the Taliban and al-Qaeda who need a weak Afghanistan and corruption are the main threats to effective controls, Costa said. Drug dealers, who include Taliban and al-Qaeda members, "influence politics, foment regional strife, nourish separatist ambitions and armed conflicts to destabilize the government, and challenge the national unity," he said. The U.N. drug office has found corruption to be a common element in all drug trafficking routes, Costa said, "the presence of corrupted government officials, corrupted port and airport staff, and corrupted customs employees. The old Silk Road, now turned into an opium-paved road, is riddled with such evidence of corruption." Costa said that national efforts are not enough. The international community needs to develop a comprehensive approach that includes Afghanistan and its neighbors going after stockpiles, clandestine laboratories and precursor supplies; promoting alternative development in opium growing areas, including micro-lending for poor farmers, and jobs and education for women and children; turning bazaars into modern trading places; neutralizing warlords' efforts to keep the drug trade alive; and helping Afghanistan reform its criminal justice system. U.S. Ambassador John Negroponte said, "the message here is that we should do more, and we should do it better." "The United States is committed to helping build the Afghan Transitional Authority's capacity to run effective counter-narcotics programs and reduce poppy cultivation and trade through alternative livelihood programs, and we are working with the Transitional Authority to build a National Police Force," Negroponte said. The ambassador outlined what the United States, the United Kingdom, and Germany have been doing to help counter-narcotics programs and increase security in the country. Negroponte said that the United States has contributed more than $60 million to the counter-narcotics and police training programs and will soon contribute $20 million to the Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund. "In addition to the considerable outlay for Operation Enduring Freedom, the United States will expend almost a billion dollars this year on reconstruction, humanitarian relief, and for budget support in Afghanistan," the ambassador said. (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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