Page 2 of
2 AFGHANISTAN'S HIGHWAY TO
HELL The Taliban's
flower power By Syed Saleem
Shahzad
protection to the growers
and processors. The Taliban's business is fighting
occupation forces, I suggested.
"I don't
agree with you. It is correct that the Taliban
don't like poppy cultivation and the narcotics
trade in principle, but it is impossible that
narcotics could be traded without their consent,
and we are even aware of some big names among the
Taliban
directly overseeing narcotics
trade operations," the official said.
The
official was lost for a while in his own thoughts,
and then spoke. "The international buyers sit at
the border areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan
[Gardi Jungle near Pakistan's Balochistan
province] and send local buyers to Lashkar Gah. A
full-blown mafia operation runs this business,
which includes the Afghan National Police, the
Afghan National Army and the local administration.
Their connivance goes all the way to assisting the
local buyers to get the consignment of heroin to
the Gramsir district.
"From Gramsir, the
Taliban's area starts and a new cartel then
transports the consignment up to the Pak-Afghan
border. From there they use many deserted coastal
points in Balochistan to ship the consignments to
the UAE, Europe and other international
destinations. Nevertheless, from the Gramsir
district nothing can pass through without the
consent and connivance of the Taliban ... it is
impossible," the official said.
"Some
marijuana is smuggled into Iran and some of the
heroin is also marketed in Pakistan," the official
added.
More than a
handful Helmand is the Taliban's most
strategic province, where it raises resources and
exerts widespread influence over the population.
The province also serves as access to western
Afghanistan's Tajik belt and to Pakistan's lawless
border areas to the south.
Within the
province, Gramsir district is perhaps the only
region in which British troops actively pursue
targets (beside Gresikh, where there is limited
patrolling and occasional operations). Operations
in Gramsir are based on sketchy
information-gathering that leads to air strikes.
Similarly, British forces do not know how
to choke the drug routes, especially as from
Lashkar Gah to Gramsir a cartel allegedly headed
by the Taliban includes local police and army
personnel.
The Afghan Eradication Force
led by US and British forces simply does not have
any idea how to tackle this unlikely joint venture
between the Taliban and Afghan security forces and
the local administration.
And critically,
in Sangeen district, where most of the processing
labs are located, the Taliban and the ISAF have
agreed to a ceasefire, in effect allowing the
Taliban to go about their business - whether
military or otherwise - unimpeded.
Asadullah Wafa, the governor of Helmand,
has been entrusted by the British to establish
tribal councils to build bridges between the
Taliban and his local Kabul-backed administration.
Money will also be funneled into numerous
reconstruction projects.
For Sangeen
district, the governor has only recently started
negotiations with tribal elders and clerics to
form councils. Until these are in place - and it
could take months - the ceasefire between the
Taliban and foreign forces will stand.
Yet
the Taliban's planned mass uprising for spring is
only a few months away, as is another lucrative
bumper poppy crop that would provide the money to
keep the uprising going for a long time.
Syed Saleem Shahzad is Asia
Times Online's Pakistan Bureau Chief. He can be
reached at saleem_shahzad2002@yahoo.com.
(Copyright 2007 Asia Times Online Ltd. All
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