AFGHANISTAN:
London Conference to Focus on Counter-Narcotics
Ezatullah Zawab and Abdul Samad Rohani - Pajhwok Afghan News*
KABUL, Jan 26 (IPS) - The Afghan government's fight against illegal poppy
cultivation will be a key point on the agenda at the London conference
to discuss Afghanistan's future. More than 70 countries will be
attending the two-day meeting, which starts Jan 31.
The international community has pumped in millions of dollars into
Afghanistan to stop farmers from growing opium.
The United Nations Organisation for Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has
committed 70 million dollars for the development of alternative
agricultural livelihoods in just one province, eastern Nangarhar, this
year. Opium is the basis of 50 percent of Afghanistan's domestic output
and virtually all its export and personal wealth.
According to UNODC's estimates, 21 percent of cultivable land in the
mostly mountainous and desert country was under opium last year. Nearly
90 percent of the world's opium is from Afghanistan. Most of it winds up
in the illegal heroin trade.
On Jan 21, Afghanistan's Special Anti-Narcotics Force (ASNF) raided drug
laboratories, chemical stores and opium storages in Nangarhar province.
Over 370 kgs of drugs and eight laboratories containing significant
amounts of precursor chemicals were destroyed, a press release from the
Counter-narcotics Ministry said.
There have been a series of operations against cultivators and
traffickers in many provinces including Badghis, Laghman, Zabul, Helmand
and Kandahar.
Governors of three southern provinces including Helmand who met in
Kabul, on Jan 5, agreed to tackle the drugs trade issue head-on. The
commander of the US-led coalition forces, Col Owns, who was also
present, assured the governors all possible help in boosting security
and destroying poppy crops in the lawless provinces.
British Ambassador Rosalind Marsden, who visited Helmand province on
Jan. 8, promised that "if the farmers quit cultivating poppies, they
will be provided with agricultural tools, fertilisers and improved seeds
in the short-term plan and in the long-term aid, we will try to find
international markets for the their products, help to revive industries
in Helmand and reconstruct the irrigation system."
However, many poppy growers are vehemently opposed to the governors'
decision. Shah Jaehan, a poppy grower from Nad Ali district, vowed that
he would "protect his crop till death". Last year, Helmand grew more
opium than any other province. Its deserts are the hub of a smuggling
network that stretches into Pakistan and Iran.
Independent news reports from the province suggest that a resurgent
Taliban may have tied up with drug smugglers, and threatening farmers in
remote villages with death if they do not cultivate poppy. When the
Taliban was in power in Afghanistan, it had condemned poppy farming
as "unislamic". Now it runs on money from the illegal trade.
Meanwhile, security officials in the western Badghis province, who had
conducted operations to destroy poppy crops in early January, were
warned by growers that they would return to poppy cultivation if the
government failed to provide them with alternative means of living.
One of the cultivators, who did not wish to be named, said: "I have
grown the crop on 13 acres of land. I will resist if the government
doesn't provide me with alternative means of living."
Mulla Mirza from Jond district, said: "The agriculture department has
not assisted us for over the past two years. We have no other way but to
revert to poppy cultivation."
When contacted, the head of the Agriculture Department Shir Aqa Hotak
said 75 kgs of fertilisers and 25 kgs of wheat were distributed among
farmers but acknowledged that it was not enough. He said there were more
than 12,000 farmers in Badghis province, who needed to be provided with
enough seeds and fertilisers.
According to police estimates, at least 150 acres of land was under
poppy in Badghis province. Police chief, Colonel Ghulam Rasool, who said
that 70 acres of land in Panjab and Bala-Murghab districts were cleared
in the province in a 10-day operation in January, has warned poppy
growers that they would be "dealt with an iron-hand".
The ASNF has destroyed more than 150 metric tonnes of opium, over 45
metric tonnes of precursor chemicals and 191 drug-processing
laboratories in raids across the country. An unspecified number of
people have been arrested on drug-related charges.
The counter-narcotics operations have shown results in Laghman province,
where officials say most farms were destroyed in 2005, and as a result
the amount of drugs produced was lower than a year ago. Mattiullah, 40,
a farmer in Alishang district, said: "Growing poppies was forbidden in
Islam."
Officials have been working in tandem with religious elders from all the
districts who have promised to fight the drugs menace. Laghman governor
Shah Mahmood Safi said clerics have been mobilised to convince farmers
to destroy the poppy crops at mosque sermons.
Afghanistan's anti-narcotics forces are planning to launch another clean-up operation shortly. Deputy Interior Minister Mohammad Daud Daud has
announced that poppy fields in Nangarhar, Balkh, Kandahar, Uruzgan,
Badakhshan, Helmand and Farah provinces would be targetted.
Daud said that 1,300 policemen who would be deployed have been given
special training for the operation. The Interior Ministry conducted a
survey last year that estimates poppy growth has fallen by 40 percent
because of counter-narcotics efforts.
(* Released by IPS under agreement with Pajhwok Afghan News) (END/2006)
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