War on Drugs v War on Terra

by **Byrne** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 6:36 am

From the excellent <a href="http://wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.com/" target="top">Wakeupfromyourslumber</a> blog <hr /> In an effort to justify US plans to remain indefinitely in Afghanistan, again the US peddles the flagrant lie that the Taliban supports the country's opium trade, while the US fights it. <a href="http://apnews.excite.com/article/20060403/D8GOKER83.html" target="top">Afghanistan's Taliban-led insurgency</a> is likely to worsen this year as new NATO troops replace battle-hardened American forces in some areas and the government pushes ahead with an aggressive anti-drug campaign . . . Afghanistan supplies nearly 90 percent of the world's opium and heroin and some of the profits from the illicit business are believed to go to the Taliban. The government, backed by hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. and British money, has launched a campaign to forcibly eradicate poppies in many areas - a move that is believed to have prompted armed resistance from traffickers. What a load of shit. <a href="http://www.cbc.ca/story/news/national/2001/07/04/opium010704.html" target="top">The United Nations Drug Control Program</a> says the world's biggest heroin producing country, Afghanistan, has gone out of the drug business. A UNDCP report to be released next month [August 2001] will say Afghanistan has completely eradicated cultivation of the opium poppy, the plant producing the resin which is refined into heroin. "We do not grow poppies and we will not grow them. This is a Taliban edict and it must be obeyed," Sheikh Rashimi, leader of the village of Spenghagbarga, told the CBC's Patrick Brown. Spenghagbarga is just a dusty truck stop of a village. It used to be a way station on the long journey from the poppy fields of Afghanistan to the heroin dealers on the streets of Moscow, London, New York and Vancouver. That explains why "[t]he British, the Dutch and the Canadians have deployed thousands of soldiers in recent months" - to re-establish the lucrative trade. The Taliban's ban on opium products has cost many people their livelihoods. But no one dares defy the ban. Last year Afghanistan produced almost 4,000 tonnes of opium. This year's figure is ZERO. Bernard Frahi of the UN Drug Control Program confirms those numbers. But now, he says, Afghanistan's farmers need help. "Since they did something that is remarkable, and deserve respect by the international community, they deserve our respect and support to help their families," he said. But, alas. Little facts like these don't deter the US propaganda machine. If at first they don't succeed, they just lie and lie again. <hr />

by **hmm** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:41 am

If you add that up with this information... <a href="http://www.kashar.net/complete.asp?id=3397">www.kashar.net/complete.asp?id=3397</a> <blockquote>Quote:<hr>UK cheated Afghan poppy growers: report BRUSSELS, March 29 (SANA): The British government has failed to honour its pledge to compensate Afghani farmers for eradicating poppy crops, causing widespread anger in the volatile south of the country and leading to increased support for Taliban insurgents, a new report by the Senlis Council think tank claims. Afghanistan is the world's leading producer of opium. Ninety percent of the heroin found on the streets of Europe and the United States can be traced to poppy crops in the mountains of the war-torn central Asian state. After the Taliban government was removed by US forces following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks Britain was put in charge of the international community's counter-narcotics effort in Afghanistan. Although thousands of acres of poppies have been destroyed, the former Soviet vassal state now produces more opium than ever. The Senlis Council, a respected international security and development think tank with offices in Kabul, says Britain is to blame for pursuing counter-productive anti-drugs policies that have alienated local farmers and fueled support for Taliban and al-Qaida insurgents in the south of the country. Based on interviews with farmers in the Helmand province, where 3,300 British troops will arrive over the coming months, the group claims that U.K. counter-narcotics officers promised local farmers $350 for every fifth of a hectare of poppies they destroyed. "These farmers kept their side of the deal and eradicated their crops, but the British Government did not keep their word," said Mohammad Gull, a local representative from the Sharwali District in Helmand who was involved in the initial negotiations with the British representatives. "In our culture this is very dishonorable and we are very angry." Gull told the Senlis Council he had over 400 checks in his possession which farmers had been unable to cash because of insufficient funds in the account. In total, the farmers allege they are owed $21 million and are planning to sue the British government for the money that was promised them. British soldiers have started arriving in the south of the country as part of a 21,000-strong NATO peacekeeping force that is slowly fanning out from the capital Kabul. Securing the lawless province of Helmand is key to the reconstruction process in Afghanistan, not only because it is one of the main poppy-growing regions but because of the strong Taliban presence. The Senlis Council, which Sunday released a report on the escalating security crisis in Afghanistan, believes British troops are in for a rude reception from furious locals when they arrive. <hr></blockquote>

by **StarmanSkye** » Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:15 pm

Ah-Mazing . . . So, largely because of increasing 'security threats' because of the UK's bad-faith agreement in which it reneged on its 21 million dollar promise, NATO's British Troops will be entering an incomprehensably dangerous and hostile situation that willfully 'bumbling' and incompetant officials have essentially created -- costing how many tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars more? (The UK is allocating 1.79 billion dollars to deploy 6000 UK Troops for 3 years) And actually BUILDING, creating anything, Anything AT all OF LASTING, practical value? The REAL truth is, of course, that the fantastically lucrative opium/heroin trade is now essential to prop-up the UK and US's overextended, lopsided economies -- decades of counter-insurgency black-ops and counter-intel and alliances with warlords, arms and drugs-smuggling rackets and money-laundering and milking the military-defense scheme have resulted in byzantine secret agreements and interests. For years, the US loosely 'managed' the rural population thru cultivating partnershops with powerful tribal warlords and paying/rewarding them with cash, weapons and brand-new SUVs, actively preventing NATO from interfering or expanding their presence outside of Kabul -- and enabling the resurgence of opium as a cash crop. Man, whatta scam. ****** <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,1143881,00.html">www.guardian.co.uk/afghan...81,00.html</a> Richard Norton-Taylor and agencies Monday February 9, 2004 The Guardian Nato is turning a blind eye to the flourishing opium trade in Afghanistan to ensure the support of warlords in the struggle to maintain security in the country, Russia's defence minister has claimed. Sergei Ivanov said Afghanistan was now producing nine times the quantity of drugs it did under the Taliban. "It is understandable that by allowing drug peddling in Afghanistan, the [Nato] alliance ensures loyalty of warlords on the ground and of some Afghan leaders," he said. "Nevertheless, the drug flow from Afghanistan is posing a serious threat to the national security of all of the central Asian CIS [confederation of independent states] and Russia. It results from the absence of a truly international approach toward stabilisation in Afghanistan." Mr Ivanov was speaking at an international security conference in Munich where Nato countries, including Britain, debated whether to increase their military presence in Afghanistan. His comments came as at least 20 people were reported killed and 40 wounded in north-eastern Afghanistan in clashes over the payment of taxes on the opium poppy crop. The Munich meeting coincided with an international conference in Kabul, called to discuss ways to combat the trade. The Afghan poppy crop is estimated to be the raw material for 90% of the heroin in Britain, but little ends up in the US. The UN estimates that Afghan opium production last year amounted to a record 3,600 tonnes - an increase of 6% on the previous year - and said that surveys of farmers suggested that a further increase was likely this year. UN officials have voiced concern because the crop is spreading to parts of the country where it has not been grown before. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime has estimated that the output could be worth $2.3bn (£1.25bn). The country's total official exports to its neighbour Pakistan are worth about one-sixtieth of that. Whitehall officials privately accuse the US of giving a low priority to the issue, as it needs the warlords to help combat Taliban and al-Qaida remnants and other Islamist fighters. Geoff Hoon, the defence secretary, told the Munich conference that Britain had offered to lead an expanded Nato peacekeeping mission in northern Afghanistan. "We are prepared to take command of the northern region group," he said. Officials said Britain would lead a network of Nato military teams based in five or six cities across a swath of northern territory. The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said that five such teams of 80 to 300 soldiers could be in place by June, when national elections are due. However, the US has made it clear that the mandate for Nato's peacekeepers would be separate from that of US troops in search of al-Qaida fighters and Osama bin Laden. Official sources told Reuters yesterday that the latest clashes involving the opium trade involved the forces of two government commanders in the Argo district. The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press said fighting had not stopped until Sunday morning in a dispute between the two commanders about who would receive a tax on the district's poppy crop. About 100 members of the security forces have been sent from Faizabad, the provincial capital of Badakhshan, to stop the fighting, authorities said, adding that the locals wanted the central government to step in because they did not trust provincial officials. *** <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,,1715962,00.html">www.guardian.co.uk/afghan...62,00.html</a> Nato will be in Afghanistan for years, says military chief Richard Norton-Taylor Thursday February 23, 2006 The Guardian Afghanistan has huge problems and Nato forces will be there for "years and years", the commander of Canada's expeditionary forces, which have taken a lead role in the hostile south of the country, warned yesterday. More than 3,000 British troops will join the Canadians in southern Afghanistan over the coming months. It is the latest move in Nato's commitment to deploy troops throughout Afghanistan in what is widely regarded as a hugely risky test for the alliance. The build-up of Nato forces in the south of the country is the alliance's "biggest operational, and perhaps strategic, challenge in years, if not decades", Major General Michel Gauthier said in a telephone interview with the Guardian. He will be based in Ottawa overseeing more than 2,000 Canadian troops in Kandahar, which will come under the overall leadership of Nato and a British commander, General Sir David Richards, this summer. The government has said the deployment of the 3,000-plus strong British brigade, based in Helmand province, next to Kandahar, will last for three years. It is not clear what happens then, but Gen Gauthier said Nato troops would still be needed. Gen Gauthier commanded the first UN forces deployed in the Balkans in 1992. He said no one had expected thousands of UN and Nato troops to be there 14 years later. Asked if Nato troops would be in Afghanistan, a country he described as having "huge problems", for decades, he replied: "For years and years." He described southern Afghanistan as an "unpermissive environment", but said Canadian and British troops were well trained. Nine Canadians have been killed in Afghanistan since 2002, including a diplomat killed in a suicide attack. Some 214 American service personnel have been killed since the US invaded the country in 2001. Attacks have increased in recent months, partly as a result of changing tactics by Taliban and foreign fighters. Yesterday a bomb exploded near a Nato peacekeeping convoy in northern Afghanistan, killing one Afghan civilian and wounding 12 people, including a German peacekeeper, officials told Associated Press. The bomb, on a bicycle, went off at about 1.30pm near a bazaar in the northern city of Kunduz, said the provincial police chief. But Gen Gauthier said there would be fewer suicide attacks. They were "counter-cultural" to Afghans, he said, the vast majority of whom wanted peace and a better life. "What is clear," he said, " [is that] narcotics, criminality, terrorism, insurgency, are all linked." Unlike Britain, Canada is not involved in the eradication of the opium poppy trade. Britain and its European allies say peacekeeping and nation-building missions are distinct from the US-led operations against terrorists and al-Qaida. ****** <a href="http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/archive2005/afghanistan.html">www.thewe.cc/contents/mor...istan.html</a> Winner of the Walkley Award Australian filmmaker Carmela Baranowska. What I find is that the US Marines act with impunity. They are conducting cordon and search operations designed to humiliate and terrorise the local community into compliance. This is a rare and damning insight into what US forces are doing in that other “war on terror.” Away from the eyes of the media, humiliation and brutalisation tactics similar to those of used at Abu Ghraib are practiced here with impunity. This documentary is a unique and unprecedented look at the sharp edge of the war on terror in one of the most remote and inaccessible places on earth. To view 30 minute documentary: <a href="http://www.talibancountry.com/">www.talibancountry.com/</a> Afghan Massacre: Up to 3000 Taliban Prisoners murdered with US Troop complicity in early stage of US/Afghan War -- Documentary: <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/05/20/147230">www.democracynow.org/arti.../20/147230</a> ****** www.thebusinessonline.com Sunday, January 29, 2006 By Fraser Nelson Real Afghan war is now beginning THE bloodiest wars often start with the least political fanfare. The Crimean war was agreed in a Cabinet meeting while three members were asleep. And last week, just 13 Labour MPs listened to the Commons statement about Afghanistan. The voice of John Reid, the Defence Secretary, echoed to the lack of listeners in the chamber as he announced the £1bn (E1.45bn, $1.79bn), three-year deployment of 6,000 troops. The contrast to the hubris before the Iraq war could hardly be starker. Yet the Afghanistan mission could — for British troops — bring a higher death toll than Iraq. The risks are higher, the stakes lower and the goals would be considered laughable if so many lives were not at stake. There are, in effect, two armies in Afghanistan. There are 20,000 Americans under Operation Enduring Freedom, whose mission is to hunt and kill insurgents and — ideally — haul Osama bin Laden out of his cave. While they have been doing battle, Nato forces have been pacifying various sectors of Afghanistan. They have so far done the easy parts, which the Taliban never controlled. It is now time to move on to stage three: Helmand. ***** www.thebusinessonline.com Sunday, January 29, 2006 By Fraser Nelson Real Afghan war is now beginning This is Afghanistan’s richest province, irrigated by the Tarnak river. Its fields are red with opium poppies, an illegal crop that generates 55% of Afghanistan’s wealth. This is what the British come to destroy. Perhaps one of the most deceptive statements Tony Blair made in the war on terror was claiming that a reason to depose the Taliban was that they were the world’s biggest drug dealers. “The Taliban regime are funded in large parts on the drugs trade — 90% of all heroin sold in Britain originates from Afghanistan. Stopping that trade is directly in our interests.” He repeated this claim at Labour’s conference. “The arms the Taliban are buying today are paid for with the lives of young British people buying their drugs on British streets. That is another part of their regime that we should seek to destroy.” The Taliban, for all their boundless evil, had in fact dealt the greatest blow ever inflicted on world heroin trade by declaring poppy cultivation “un-Islamic” and production collapsed by 91%. The United Nations, which has monitored Afghan drug crops since 1994, sent in teams of ground inspectors who confirmed in 2001 “the near total success of the ban in eliminating poppy cultivation in Taliban-controlled areas”. So in the year of invasion, a pathetic 8,000 hectares of Afghanistan was growing poppies — all of it in areas where the Taliban had no presence. It is impossible the Prime Minister did not know this. Today, the Afghan deployment is still projected as a form of opium war — which is doubtless how it seems to the naïve Department for International Development and the idealistic Nato planners. **** www.thebusinessonline.com Sunday, January 29, 2006 By Fraser Nelson Real Afghan war is now beginning To hear ministers talk, it is as if the mission is to introduce the rule of law to grateful natives who live in pre-feudal anarchy. But Helmand has strong local authorities in the form of drug barons whose efforts keep locals from starving. To call Afghan-istan a third world country exaggerates its wealth. In a typical developing nation, 25% are undernourished; in Afghanistan, this figure is 70%. Infant mortality is almost twice the third world average. Today, about 2m Afghans rely on opium poppies for their livelihood, generating $2.7bn of illegal wealth. They will not give this up readily, nor will the farmers whose desire to feed their families is stronger than their desire to placate Nato. It took Thailand 25 years and Pakistan 20 years to end opium production — and neither country had, at their peak, produced anything near Afghanistan today. Its narcotics industry is a contemptible, but inevitable, function of poverty. No amount of western bribes guns or idealism can overcome this. “It’s not just a question of growing tomatoes instead of poppies,” says the head of the UN drugs mission in Kabul. “Tomatoes will never bring the same profit.” While the British Army may not defeat the opium trade, it will succeed in picking a fight with the tribes who control it — and perhaps start a new insurgency in one of the most explosive areas of Afghanistan. For all its anti-drug rhetoric, the British military seems to realise it is preparing for ground war. Its troop deployment is led by 16 Air Assault Brigade, the Army’s largest. This is not the armed division of Oxfam. ***** www.thebusinessonline.com Sunday, January 29, 2006 By Fraser Nelson Real Afghan war is now beginning Commanders know the powers Britain seeks to depose in Helmand are capable of organising an insurgency — and readily calling in reinforcements from Iran, which is only a day away by horse. It can easily turn into a battle. And all for what? There is no dictator to depose. There is no gathering military threat. There is no winning the drug battle if farmers make 10 times as much from opium poppies as from licit crops. No wonder the Dutch are wondering whether such a mission is worth the blood price. Its parliament has woken up to the naiveté of the Nato mission and may this week vote to overturn a decision by its government to send troops. But the UK political class remains too obsessed with America’s alleged misdemeanors to notice that, more than four years after the Taliban left Kabul, the real Afghan war may be only now beginning. ***** <img src="http://www.thewe.cc/thewei/&/aljazerra_net/87D1412803B845BC806A6E66878B7942.jpe" style="border:0;"/> Kabul, Afghanistan — Poppy eradication in Afghanistan story by Darko Zeljkovic and Charlene Cowling Wave upon wave of lush pink petals burst through acre upon acre of dry land nestled between towering slate gray mountains and hugging a nonchalantly meandering river. Children play in the fields and picnics of fresh, tangy goat cheese and warm tea are laid out while farmers tend to their crops. The scene is deceivingly and pastorally idyllic. Behind the scenes, however, is the ongoing, internationally fuelled battle of poppy field and heroin production eradication purportedly embraced by the Afghanistan government and militantly opposed by groups directly benefiting from the production, particularly in the district of Shinwar, near the Pakistani border. Impotently wedged between the two is the farmer who has historically relied on this cash crop to feed his family; he has no equitable replacement crop in sight. Under the pressure of the International community, the Afghanistan government, on the surface, recently declared Jihad, or holy war, on local opium production and distribution. Regardless, the poppy business flourishes and is regarded by the people of Afghanistan as any other openly run business in the country. Opium contributes to approximately 60 per cent of Afghanistan’s National Gross Product (NGP). In an attempt to appease the international community the Afghani government strategically sacrificed the high profile province of Nangarhar for eradication while only symbolically eradicating poppy fields in outlying regions where approximately one field in a hundred is sacrificed, thereby allowing the precarious financial structure of Afghanistan to retain its delicate balance. According to the counter-narcotic's intelligence officer, Amir Shah, more than 90 per cent of opium fields have been destroyed in this province. However, in other parts of the country, especially south of Kabul in the regions of Kandahar, Helmond and Nimroz, and in the western provinces of Farah and Heart, along the Iranian border, opium production is booming. The American Embassy blames President Hamid Karzai for not asserting strong leadership and American officials theorized that they believed that Mr. Karzai might not want to challenge local Afghan resistance in an attempt to gain votes for the parliamentary elections scheduled for this fall. Meanwhile, caught between the opposing forces, the fate of the average farmer hangs by a gossamer thread. Farmers were promised funding and support if they destroyed their fields and, to date, no evidence of that support has materialized. Farmer Zulmai, from the village of Awobazak, scrupulously extracts delicate opium paste by slicing the head of the plant with a compact seven-bladed razor sharp cutter. He explains that from one gerib, or acre, of land he hopes to collect 18 to 20 kilograms of opium in the upcoming ten days netting him approximately $3,000 USD. Those 20 kilograms of opium will produce approximately two to three kilograms of pure heroin in Helmond’s Sangin district where the heroin labs are gearing up for the season. Opium is measured and packed in "one man" (4.5 kilogram) plastic bags. Each bag is sold for approximately 35,000-40,000 Pakistani Rupees or $150 USD per kilogram. Tonnes of raw opium and heroin will cross the Iranian border to be processed. From there it will go to Turkey and then to the European market. Eradication and Jihad on drugs may take decades since the Karzai government does not have effective reach or effect in the tribal areas of Afghanistan. Its influence outside of Kabul is relatively negligible. In Kandahar, some farmers pay approximately $500 in taxes to police and their fields are left alone. Currently only one field in 100 is actually eradicated. One Kandahari farmer we spoke with is confused as to why the Eradication Team destroys his field but leaves his neighbour’s intact. However, without any personal connections in local government, the farmer keeps his own counsel, because if he asked, "They would say I support the Taliban and al-Qaida and I'd be thrown in jail," he says. http://www.communitypress-online.com/ July 22, 2005 <img src="http://www.thewe.cc/thewei/&/images3/afghanistan/gun.jpg" style="border:0;"/> One Afghan policeman stands guard while others destroyed opium poppies in a field near Kandahar, Afghanistan. 600 policemen have been killed in the past year fighting the drug trade. ****** US Coalition Complicity in 0.4 Million Drug Deaths By Gideon Polya October 26, 2005 www.aljazeerah.info Since 2001 there have been about 0.4 million global drug deaths [1] linked to US Coalition re-establishment of globally-dominant Afghan opium production. (destroyed by the Taliban in 2000-2001 but 76% and 86% of global production in 2002 and 2004, respectively, after US Coalition invasion and conquest) [2-6] While the ruling Taliban had effectively destroyed the massive Afghan opium industry by 2001 (from 79% of the global market in 1999), the invasion and conquest of Afghanistan by the US and its allies (notably the UK and Australia) in 2001 resulted in the rapid re-establishment of the Afghan opium industry to 76% global share by 2002 and 86% global share in 2004 [2]. Under the Coalition, by 2002 the Afghan opium poppy cultivation area had jumped from 3% to 38% of the World total and Afghan opium production was 76% of the World total. By 2004, the Afghan opium poppy acreage had jumped to 67% of the World total and Afghan opium production was 86% of the World total [2]. The US and its Coalition allies (notably the UK and Australia) have a clear complicity in the rapid restoration of the Afghan opium industry to World domination and are accordingly complicit in an estimated post-9/11 opioid-related death toll of 0.4 million (the World), 40,000-60,000 (the US), 3,200 (the UK), 2,000 (Australia) and 1,200 (Scotland). References and footnotes — Dr Gideon Polya website http://members.optusnet.com.au/~gpolya/links.html ***** Sunday, 4 December 2005 Losing the war on Afghan drugs By Andrew North BBC News, Lashkar Gah, Helmand "Of course we're growing poppy this year," said the district chief. "The government, the foreigners — they promised us help if we stopped. But where is it?" In 2004, Afghanistan produced 90% of the world's opium You hear similar things from many other people in Helmand province in Afghanistan — the number one opium poppy producing region in the number one opium producing country in the world. If there's a central focus for the international and Afghan government campaign to stamp out the trade, it's here. And here many believe drugs profits directly fund Taleban militants, for whom parts of Helmand remain a haven. But after a small drop in Helmand's opium cultivation this year — according to UN figures — many fear a sharp increase next year. If that happens, the British and US governments will take much of the flak. Together they have been leading international efforts to tackle the problem. Hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of British and US taxpayers' money have been spent. But it's mostly been water off a duck's back to a business that is deeply rooted and underpins the still war-ravaged Afghan economy — especially in remote places like Helmand. Approach questioned Dealing with Afghanistan's drugs problem since the fall of the Taleban has been a big failure here — a failure that soaks into every aspect of the country's progress UK Prime Minister Tony Blair recently admitted that his government had little to show for four years of effort since the fall of the Taleban. But recent studies call into question the international community's whole approach to the problem. Helmand has become a specific challenge to the UK which is gearing up to send several thousand troops and civilian advisers to the province next spring. Tackling drugs will be top of the agenda. I spoke to one Afghan elder — sporting a large, black Taleban-style turban, still common in this region — who asked not to be named. He had just emerged from a council meeting with Helmand's governor and other district chiefs. Governor Sher Mohammed Akhunzada had been urging them to spread the message to farmers not to sow opium again. It's planting time now. They heard the same message this time last year — government officials here say this year's small decline is evidence it's getting through. But is this sustainable? There were already warning signs. While Helmand recorded a 10% decline in opium cultivation in 2005, in neighbouring Nimroz it went up by a spectacular 1,370%. It's believed many of those involved in the Helmand trade moved to Nimroz because it is even more remote and weakly policed. And at the council meeting in the Helmand governor's guesthouse there was a restive mood and complaints that promises had not been met. "What happened to the new roads and irrigation canals, the jobs we were told about?" the elders asked. As always at such meetings, there were excuses too. "Why does the government tell us to stop growing opium when it's doing nothing about alcohol use and prostitution?" one man demanded. "Opium is not mentioned in the Koran, but alcohol and prostitution are." Evidence hard to find Helmand is supposed to have received $55m of "alternative livelihood" development aid this year, according to the UN's drugs control agency. 'The international community has to demonstrate that it's just as concerned about the problem as it affects Afghanistan." --Afghan government official That's $55 for every person in the province, a quarter of the average annual income here. But it's hard to find any evidence of it in Helmand, where the tarmac on the roads runs out well before you leave the provincial capital, Lashkar Gah. There have been some "cash for work" schemes, employing people on basic infrastructure projects like clearing drainage ditches. But they don't pay enough to compensate people for losing their opium incomes, especially for the poorest farmers who are often deeply indebted to local drugs barons. British and US counter-narcotics official argue, though, that there was never any chance of a quick replacement for opium. But in major drug-producing areas that was not how farmers and community leaders understood things, according to a new European-Union funded study about the links between Afghanistan's opium economy and conflict. Complying with President Hamid Karzai's edicts to stop growing poppy "was explicitly seen as conditional on rapid compensation and rural development", say the authors. "We need the British to stop the smugglers." --Governor Sher Mohammed Akhunzada The implicit message from the meeting at Governor Akhunzada's guesthouse was that farmers would be planting again. Even he admits a rise in poppy cultivation is likely. "It's not only because the farmers don't have alternatives," he says. "It's also because the Taleban and al-Qaeda are forcing them to grow poppy." He wants more pressure put on the traffickers, the people higher up the chain who make the bigger profits and provide the market. "We need the British to stop the smugglers," he says. Motives questioned For some time, many drug control experts and development workers have been saying similar things, that there's too much focus on farmers and eradicating their opium crops. There is mounting concern back in the capital, Kabul, about the way things are going. "We may be in danger," a senior Afghan government official told the BBC. "The farmers did listen to President Karzai, but they may lose confidence in him if they don't get more support." There's scepticism, too, about the West's motives on the drugs issue, that its only real concern is reducing the supply of heroin to its own streets. Few in Helmand are aware British troops are about to arrive "The international community has to demonstrate that it's just as concerned about the problem as it affects Afghanistan," said the official. Dealing with Afghanistan's drugs problem since the fall of the Taleban has been a big failure here — a failure that soaks into every aspect of the country's progress. More and more, people are realising it's going to take a long time to reverse. **** Starman

War on Drugs v War on Terra

War on Drugs v War on Terra

Re: War on Drugs UK cheated Afghan poppy growers

Re: War on Drugs UK cheated Afghan poppy growers

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