Afghan opium cultivation rise by 59%
KABUL (Afghanistan)—Afghanistan's world-leading opium cultivation rose a
"staggering" 59 percent this year, the U.N. anti-drugs chief announced
Saturday in urging the government to crack down on big traffickers and
remove corrupt officials and police.
The record crop yielded 6,100 tons of opium, or enough to make 610 tons
of heroin — outstripping the demand of the world's heroin users by a
third, according to U.N. figures.
Officials warned that the illicit trade is undermining the Afghan
government, which is under attack by Islamic militants that a U.S.-led
offensive helped drive from power in late 2001 for harboring Osama bin
Laden and al-Qaida bases.
"The news is very bad. On the opium front today in some of the provinces
of Afghanistan, we face a state of emergency," Antonio Maria Costa,
chief of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, said at a news conference.
"In the southern provinces, the situation is out of control."
He talked with reporters after presenting results of the U.N. survey to
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who voiced "disappointment" over the
figures. "Our efforts to fight narcotics have proved inadequate," Karzai
said in a statement.
With the economy struggling, there are not enough jobs and many Afghans
say they have to grow opium poppies to feed their families. The trade
already accounts for at least 35 percent of Afghanistan's economy,
financing warlords and insurgents.
The top U.S. narcotics official here said the opium trade is a threat to
the country's fledgling democracy.
"This country could be taken down by this whole drugs problem," Doug
Wankel told reporters. "We have seen what can come from Afghanistan, if
you go back to 9/11. Obviously the U.S. does not want to see that
again."
The bulk of the opium increase was in lawless Helmand province, where
cultivation rose 162 percent and accounted for 42 percent of the Afghan
crop. The province has been wracked by the surge in attacks by
Taliban-led militants that has produced the worst fighting in five
years.
Opium-growing increased despite the injection of hundreds of millions of
dollars in foreign aid to fight the drug over the past two years. Costa
criticized the international effort and said foreign aid was "plagued by
huge overhead costs" in its administration.
Costa said Afghanistan's insecurity is fueling the opium boom, saying he
has pleaded with the NATO force that took over military operations in
the south a month ago to take a "stronger role" in fighting drugs. NATO
says it has no mandate for direct involvement in the anti-drug campaign.
"We need much stronger, forceful measures to improve security or
otherwise I'm afraid we are going to face a dramatic situation of failed
regions, districts and even perhaps even provinces in the near future,"
Costa said.
The U.N. report, based on satellite imagery and ground surveys, said the
area under poppy cultivation in Afghanistan reached 407,700 acres in
2006, up 59 percent from 257,000 acres in 2005. The previous high was
323,700 acres in 2004.
The estimated yield of 6,100 tons of opium resin — described by Costa as
"staggering" — is up 49 percent from 4,100 tons last year, and exceeds
the previous high for total global output of 5,764 tons recorded in
1999.
Last year, about 450 tons of heroin was consumed worldwide, 90 percent
of it from Afghanistan, according to the U.N.
The report will increase pressure on the beleaguered Afghan president.
Karzai has often talked tough on drugs, even declaring a "holy war"
against the trade, but he is increasingly criticized for appointing and
failing to sack corrupt provincial governors and police.
Costa urged the arrest of "serious drug traffickers" to fill a new
high-security wing for narcotics convicts at Kabul's Policharki prison.
"It has 100 beds. We want these beds to be taken up in the next few
months," he said.
At the same news conference, the Afghan counternarcotics minister,
Habibullah Qaderi, said the government had the will to make arrests, but
lacked the capacity to gather evidence to prosecute "the big fish."
Yet he maintained that with its newly unveiled national anti-drugs
strategy, Afghanistan could "control" drug production within five years.
Costa was less upbeat. "It's going to take possibly 20 years to get rid
of the problem," he said, citing the experience of former opium
producers like Thailand, Turkey and Pakistan.
In an indication of the alarming extent of official complicity in the
trade, a Western counternarcotics official said about 25,000 to 30,000
acres of government land in Helmand was used to cultivate opium poppies
this year.
The official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the
issue, said police and government officials are involved in cultivating
poppies, providing protection for growers or taking bribes to ensure the
crops aren't destroyed.
He said the Taliban — which managed to nearly eradicate Afghanistan's
poppy crop in 2001, just before their ouster for giving refuge to Osama
bin Laden — now profit from the trade.
In some instances, drug traffickers have provided vehicles and money to
the Taliban to carry out terrorist attacks, he said. But added that the
ties seem to be local and that there is no evidence of coordination
between drug lords and the Taliban leadership.—Agencies |
