Pubdate: Thu, 31 Aug 2006
Source: Scotsman (UK)
Copyright: 2006 The Scotsman Publications Ltd
Contact: http://members.scotsman.com/contact.cfm
Website: http://www.scotsman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/406
Author: James Kirkup
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)

PRODUCTION OF HEROIN ON THE RISE IN BRITISH FORCES' AREA

AFGHAN heroin production has sharply increased this year, with the 
biggest rise coming in the very province British troops are supposed 
to be helping to stabilise, it emerged yesterday.

United Nations figures expected to be published this weekend will 
show that this year's poppy crop is up on last year's as many 
poverty- stricken Afghan farmers return to cultivating the crop.

Cutting heroin production is one of Britain's key aims in 
Afghanistan, and UK officials familiar with the UN figures yesterday 
admitted that this year's rise was in part a result of the slow 
progress of development work there.

Most embarrassing of all is the fact that Helmand province, where 
more than 5,000 British troops are deployed in a dangerous 
"stability" mission, has reported the biggest single annual increase 
in poppy production.

"We are expecting a fairly significant rise in the poppy crop this 
year," one official said, adding that the bulk of the increase had 
come in a handful of the 34 provinces, "particularly Helmand".

Despite this year's setback, officials insist that counter-narcotics 
campaigns are succeeding. The poppy crop shrank between 2004 to 2005, 
and diplomats insisted that the drug mission "has to be considered in 
the long term - we always said the figures would fluctuate."

At the root of the Afghan heroin problem is the country's poverty. 
Shattered by more than 30 years of conflict, it is still one of the 
world's poorest, despite five years of intense international 
development following the toppling of the Taliban.

A Foreign Office official yesterday admitted that development was not 
as fast as planned.

"It's probably going, as most things in Afghanistan, rather more 
slowly than people might have had ambition for, but it's still moving 
in a positive direction," he said.

Related topic Afghanistan http://news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid=444 
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/politics.cfm?id=1284532006 
Last updated: 30-Aug-06 00:02 BST Comments Add your comment  1. 
Colin, Out There / 8:43pm 31 Aug 2006

What are British troops supposed to be doing out there anyway? The 
poppy cultivation will go on, as it has for generations. You cannot 
'stabilise' a region by force using what will always be seen as a foreign army.

Did we not learn enough about the NorthWest frontier in the 19th 
century to last us for ever?

Bring this ill-advised miliitary deployment home.
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman