| |
Afghanistan's own opium
wars
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - The spurt in violence in Afghanistan
in recent months has generally been attributed to the
resurgence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda. However, aid
workers in Afghanistan are saying that it is warlords
with connections to the production and trade of
narcotics who are behind many of the attacks.
The sharp rise in killings, say aid workers,
coincides with the autumn harvest of the poppy crop.
Diane Johnston, country director for Mercy Corps, told
Associated Press "security is worse in places where
people are growing poppies". Late last month, the
European Union's envoy in Afghanistan, Francesc
Vendrell, warned that laboratories for producing heroin
that had been closed down by the Taliban were being set
up again.
The heightened narcotics-related
activity in Afghanistan is worrying not only because of
the surge in flow of heroin into markets abroad, but
also because of its implications for security in
Afghanistan. "There is a palpable risk that Afghanistan
will again turn into a failed state, this time in the
hands of drug cartels and narco-terrorists," wrote
Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the UN
anti-narcotics program. If "energetic interdiction
measures" are not undertaken now, the country's drug
cancer will "metastasize into corruption, violence and
terrorism", he pointed out. This year's bumper poppy
crop in Afghanistan seems to be financing a fresh
proliferation of weapons among the warlords.
Poppy cultivation touched a new high in
Afghanistan this year. According to the Afghanistan
Opium Survey for 2003 brought out by the UN Office on
Drugs and Crime and the Afghan government, Afghanistan
produced 3,600 tonnes of opium this year. In 2000, the
country produced 3,276 tonnes of opium. Under a ban
imposed by the Taliban the next year, cultivation
plunged to 185 tonnes. In 2002, opium production shot up
dramatically in Afghanistan, rising higher this year.
The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy
said last week that the area of poppy cultivation in
Afghanistan jumped to 61,000 hectares (150,000 acres)
from 30,700 hectares last year and 1,685 hectares in
2001.
Afghanistan has the dubious distinction of
being the world leader in opium production, accounting
for 75 percent of the world's poppy output. Opium is
cultivated in 28 of the country's 32 provinces. Poppy is
the most profitable crop in Afghanistan. Recent
estimates suggest that Afghan farmers make 38 times as
much from opium as they can from wheat. Although poppy
cultivation is outlawed in Afghanistan, few seem to fear
the repercussions of defying the law. The income from
poppy is far too attractive to deter farmers, especially
when one considers the alternative to poppy - crops that
do not yield adequate income to support families. The
temptation of poppy cultivation is simply too much.
Warlords and crime cartels control this
lucrative industry. Poppy is refined into heroin in
illicit laboratories all over Afghanistan. Provincial
administrators and military commanders take a share of
the profits as it is transported through the provinces
to the international market. "The more they get used to
this, the less likely it becomes that they will respect
the law, be loyal to Kabul," Costa points out.
"Terrorists take a cut as well. The longer this happens,
the greater the threat to security within the country
and on its borders."
So serious is the threat
posed by poppy cultivation and trafficking that a recent
UN Security Council mission to Afghanistan cited drug
trafficking alongside terrorism and factional warfare as
the triple threats slowing down the reconstruction
process in that country. Briefing the Security Council,
German ambassador Gunter Pleuger, head of the Security
Council mission to Afghanistan, stressed that the
narcotics economy, fueled by a new surge in opium poppy
cultivation, poses a particularly serious threat to
efforts to revive Afghan society. "The narcotics economy
is largely unchecked," he said. "In particular, the
rapid growth of the narcotics economy in recent months
has the potential to dwarf the legal economy and
threaten the small gains in the field of reconstruction
and economic stabilization achieved to date."
The Afghan government, the UN and international
aid and development organizations have taken steps to
fight the narcotics boom in Afghanistan. Officially,
poppy cultivation and narcotics business is proscribed
and severe punishment, including life imprisonment,
awaits offenders. However, most of those who have been
taken into custody and punished are minor offenders. No
action has been taken against the big fish. No one dares
take on the real players in the business. This explains
the shocking increase in narcotics production in
Afghanistan and its emergence as the world leader in
opium production.
A report in the German
newspaper Der Spiegel draws attention to "an open
secret", which throws light on why action is not taken
against the narcotics network. "Even the topmost member
of the central government," it says, "is deeply mixed up
in the drug trade." Describing the situation in the
Kunduz province, where German soldiers of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization-led (NATO) International
Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have been deployed, the
report says that Afghan Defense Minister Mohammed
Fahim's power in this part of Afghanistan "is in large
part supported by drug money. Up to now, his commanders
have been regulating the opium trade within their
spheres of influence. It's their primary source of
revenue. Anyone who interferes with the trade in their
districts lives dangerously."
There is growing
pressure on the ISAF to act against the drug
trafficking. But that, ISAF commanders are quick to
point out, is not possible as it is not part of their
mandate. Indeed, the ISAF's mandate outside Kabul is
merely to protect civilian reconstruction teams. ISAF
commanders insist that action against drug mafias is the
work of the local police. They prefer to train and equip
locals to fight the war against narco-terrorism in
Afghanistan.
Governments back home in the NATO
countries are reluctant to get their soldiers drawn into
tackling drug trafficking as this would make the troops
targets of the all-powerful drug syndicates. Therefore,
even if they come on a field of poppy or an opium
warehouse, the troops are under instructions not to act
against it. "The troops have orders to look the other
way. Orders from on high," reports Der Spiegel, adding,
"An open confrontation with the drug lords would be like
a declaration of war."
Narcotics is financing
weapons purchases by warlords, encouraging lawlessness
and threatening security in Afghanistan. The central
government's hold over the country - fragile to begin
with - is being undermined by the narco-trade, as it is
increasing the hold of the warlords over their fiefdoms.
It is weakening the aims of the "war against terrorism"
and the reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan. Yet the
ISAF is under orders to look the other way.
(Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
rights reserved. Please contact content@atimes.com for
information on our sales and syndication policies.)
|
| |
|
|
 |
|
