U.S. Urged to Revise its Anti-Drug Strategy in Afghanistan
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WASHINGTON, D.C., Feb 4 (OneWorld) - The United States must be as careful in fighting the booming heroin trade in Afghanistan as it has been in waging war against Taliban and al Qaeda insurgents, according to 31 U.S., international and Afghan development and human rights groups.
In a letter sent this week to incoming Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the organizations--which include Care, Oxfam, and Women's Edge Coalition--warned that massive poppy eradication efforts risk alienating large sectors of the population from the government of President Hamid Karzai and undermining the progress the country has made since the Taliban regime was ousted in 2001. "It has the potential to turn millions of Afghans against a government which is struggling to extend its reach and strengthen its authority," stated the letter. It also noted that poppy cultivation has spread to all 34 provinces in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban ouster, Afghanistan has become the world's largest producer of opium by far, accounting for roughly 87 percent of the world's opium and its heroin derivatives, according to a recent UN report. Because farmers can make as much as ten times the income of other crops, opium has not only become the country's biggest export, the opium trade now accounts for almost 40 percent of Afghanistan's total economy. According to the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), the amount of land under poppy cultivation increased by nearly 240 percent and opium production by 73 percent from 2003 to 2004. As a result, the nearly 20,000 U.S. military troops and the 7,000 members of the International Support Assistance Force (ISAF) are being pressed to add counter-drug operations to their security and counter-insurgency efforts. The Bush administration allocated US$780 million to that end for 2005, about two thirds of which is to be spent on eradication. But the groups argue that the plans need to be revised, because eradication--particularly aerial spraying, for which some $152 million was earmarked--could destabilize the countryside by depriving millions of small farmers of their livelihoods without providing any viable alternative. "Widespread eradication in 2005 could undermine the economy and devastate already poor families without giving rural development projects sufficient time to provide alternative sources of income," according to the letter. Threats of eradication have already resulted in higher opium prices, enriching traffickers who already have large inventories and spurring a shift in production to more remote areas of the country. Eradication without viable alternatives and programs to pay off their debts will probably only force farmers to mortgage their lands to the traffickers, and send their children--especially girls--into bonded labor or prostitution, according to the groups. "An effective counter-narcotics strategy must contribute to the stabilization of Afghanistan and help authorities build a legitimate state and economy," said Paul Barker, CARE's country director in Afghanistan. Karzai himself has already ruled out aerial spraying, a decision the groups strongly agree with. When two unidentified aircraft sprayed crops in southern Afghanistan in November, the Afghan government formally protested to the British and U.S. embassies. They, however, denied any involvement in the incident. At the same time, neither Kabul nor the groups deny that the drug trade represents a very serious threat to the Afghanistan's long-term prospects. Indeed, some analysts say that the drug economy and the corruption it breeds have become so pervasive that the country could soon become a "narco-state." The key to addressing the problem without causing too much collateral damage, according to the groups, requires a re-allocation of the counter-narcotics funding to target the middle-men, major traffickers and their protectors, rather than the small producers. More credit and alternative livelihood programs need to be directed to the farmers, they wrote, and those programs should be closely coordinated with existing provincial and national development plans. The letter calls for law enforcement to focus more on interdiction, destruction of laboratories, as well as arrest and dismissal of major traffickers and their political protectors. It also stresses the need for Washington and other donors to commit funds and training programs to build up appropriate institutions. U.S. and allied intelligence collection efforts should place a priority on identifying major traffickers and taking punitive action, even if they turn out to be warlords who have been supported by Washington in the past. Finally, the groups are calling on the Karzai government to strictly enforce those provisions of its Constitution requiring the disclosure of assets by high officials, and to extend this requirement to their families and top military commanders. "Those with unexplained assets should be dismissed," the letter stated. Other signers of the letter included Actionaid Afghanistan, Afghan NGOs Coordination Bureau, the American Friends Service Committee, Catholic Relief Services, Help the Afghan Children, the International Rescue Committee and Mercy Corps. |
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