11 April 2006
U.S. Drug Chief Sees Progress Against Drugs in Afghanistan
John Walters says area under poppy cultivation dropped steeply in 2005
By Phillip Kurata
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- Afghan authorities are succeeding in reducing opium poppy cultivation, according to the director of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, John Walters.
Briefing reporters in Washington April 10 after a visit to Afghanistan the previous week, Walters said that he saw "enormous progress" in Afghanistan's effort to eradicate opium poppy production since 2004 when he made his first visit to the country.
The most impressive progress occurred in the eastern province of Nangahar, traditionally one of the prime poppy growing areas of the country, he said. In 2005, the area under poppy cultivation dropped by nearly 50 percent nationwide, but the figure for Nangahar province was a decline of 90 percent, he said.
"This happened in Nangahar with no disruption," he said, parallel with efforts "to provide livelihoods that were legitimate and consistent with the continued rule of law."
The United States estimates that 207,600 hectares were under opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan in 2004, and the figure dropped to 107,000 hectares in 2005, according to one of Walters' aides. The amount of opium produced did not show a corresponding steep drop, however: 4,950 metric tons in 2004 and 4,475 metric tons in 2005, according to the Walters' aide.
The United Nations reports that 2.3 million people, 10 percent of the Afghan population, were involved in opium cultivation 2004; in the following year, the number of opium cultivators fell to 2 million, or 8.7 percent of the population.
Walters said that the opium trade remains the last large threat to Afghanistan, after the Taliban and al-Qaida have been driven from power and the warlords largely have been disarmed.
CAMPAIGN IN HELMAND PROVINCE
Walters said that the Afghan government in March launched an aggressive campaign in southern Helmand province, which was the heart of the Taliban power in the 1990s, to eradicate poppy cultivation after an unsuccessful attempt at eradication in 2005.
"The effort to have centralized eradication in force in conjunction with the governor's bogged down last year in Helmand, with farmers, local religious leaders and political leaders protesting and seeking to stop the eradication force," Walters said.
A new governor of Helmand, appointed by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, has taken the lead in dispatching local and provincial teams of eradicators, armed with tractors, to destroy poppy fields while Afghan army units protect the eradicators from the Taliban, Walters said.
In 2006, there have been no protests from farmers, religious leaders or local political leaders opposing the eradication, Walters said.
"The opposition has come from the Taliban. The Taliban has encouraged farmers to grow poppy and they have said they will punish people who eradicate voluntarily, as the provincial government has asked. What the continuing eradication process shows is that the Taliban can't keep their promises."
HELPING FARMERS THROUGH RURAL DEVELOPMENT
To mitigate the hardships caused by eradication, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has stepped up activities to support farmers in the region through the Alternative Livelihoods Programs.
Cash-for-work programs provide immediate income for families who suddenly find themselves deprived of income from the poppy cultivation. One major project is the Marja irrigation drain cleaning in central Helmand, which is aimed at improving agricultural productivity. USAID reports that this particular drain cleaning project has resulted in 47,000 hectares of farmland receiving increased access to water.
Walters said that the Afghan government, supported by its allies, has no illusions that it can substitute opium poppy with an equally valuable crop.
"That's not what we're doing as a combined effort in Afghanistan. We're really doing rural development. We're bringing roads, electricity, microcredit. We're trying to give people, who have been chained to the land in a variety of ways including by poppy cultivation, a future," Walters said.
Walters said that resistance among farmers to giving up poppy cultivation has not been intense because they have not benefited from the enormous profits of the opium trade.
"Many poppy farmers are not land owners. They're sharecroppers, tenant farmers, growing what the owner of the land tells them to grow, and they're making minimal amounts of money," Walters said.
CRACKING DOWN ON TRAFFICKERS
Walters said the entrenched interests in the poppy trade are higher up, and the Karzai government has established a national court to investigate, prosecute and try people suspected of involvement in the drug trade, which, according to United Nations estimates, accounted for more than 50 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product in 2005.
This court has special accommodations to assure the security of investigators, prosecutors and judges as they pursue traffickers, Walters said. The personnel involved in this operation are being trained by experts from Norway, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, he said.
Walters said that the Karzai government's efforts to educate the public about the drug trade are paying off.
"The public opinion effort by the government to educate and support standards of right and wrong show that the vast majority of Afghans understand and believe that it is wrong to grow opium and to make money off this product. They don't want to be bullied by the Taliban to grow opium and have no alternative," he 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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