Pubdate: Sat, 02 Dec 2006
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Page: A01 - Front Page
Copyright: 2006 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491
Author: Karen DeYoung, Washington Post Staff Writer
Note: The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime report is at 
http://www.unodc.org/pdf/Afgh_drugindustry_Nov06.pdf
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/Afghanistan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/heroin.htm (Heroin)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/walters.htm (Walters, John)

AFGHANISTAN OPIUM CROP SETS RECORD

U.S.-Backed Efforts at Eradication Fail

Opium production in Afghanistan, which provides more than 90 percent 
of the world's heroin, broke all records in 2006, reaching a historic 
high despite ongoing U.S.-sponsored eradication efforts, the Bush 
administration reported yesterday.

In addition to a 26 percent production increase over past year -- for 
a total of 5,644 metric tons -- the amount of land under cultivation 
in opium poppies grew by 61 percent. Cultivation in the two main 
production provinces, Helmand in the southwest and Oruzgan in central 
Afghanistan, was up by 132 percent.

White House drug policy chief John Walters called the news "disappointing."

The administration has cited resurgent Taliban forces as the main 
impediment to stabilization and reconstruction efforts in 
Afghanistan, and the U.S. military investment has far exceeded 
anti-narcotic and development programs. But U.S. military and 
intelligence officials have increasingly described the drug trade as 
a problem that rivals and in some ways exceeds the Taliban, 
threatening to derail other aspects of U.S. policy.

"It is truly the Achilles' heel of Afghanistan," Gen. James L. Jones, 
the supreme allied commander for NATO, said in a recent speech at the 
Council on Foreign Relations. Afghanistan is NATO's biggest 
operation, with more than 30,000 troops. Drug cartels with their own 
armies engage in regular combat with NATO forces deployed in 
Afghanistan, he said. "It would be wrong to say that this is just the 
Taliban. I think I need to set that record straight," he added.

"They have their own capability to inflict damage, to make sure that 
the roads and the passages stay open and they get to where they want 
to go, whether it's through Pakistan, Iran, up through Russia and all 
the known trade routes. So this is a very violent cartel," Jones 
said. "They are buying their protection by funding other 
organizations, from criminal gangs to tribes, to inciting any kind of 
resistance to keep the government off of their back."

Any disruption of the drug trade has enormous implications for 
Afghanistan's economic and political stability. Although its relative 
strength in the overall economy has diminished as other sectors have 
expanded in recent years, narcotics is a $2.6 billion-a-year industry 
that this year provided more than a third of the country's gross 
domestic product. Farmers who cultivate opium poppies receive only a 
small percentage of the profits, but U.S. officials estimate the crop 
provides up to 12 times as much income per acre as conventional 
farming, and there is violent local resistance to eradication.

"It's almost the devil's own problem," CIA Director Michael V. Hayden 
told Congress last month. "Right now the issue is stability. . . . 
Going in there in itself and attacking the drug trade actually feeds 
the instability that you want to overcome."

"Attacking the problem directly in terms of the drug trade . . . 
would undermine the attempt to gain popular support in the region," 
agreed Lt. Gen. Michael D. Maples, director of the Defense 
Intelligence Agency. "There's a real conflict, I think."

The Afghan government has prohibited the aerial herbicide spraying 
used by U.S. anti-narcotic programs in Latin America. Instead, opium 
poppy plants in Afghanistan are destroyed by tractors dragging heavy 
bars. But only 38,500 of nearly 430,000 acres under cultivation were 
eradicated this year.

Because of security concerns and local sensibilities, all eradication 
is done by Afghan police, and corruption is a major problem at every 
level from cultivation to international trafficking. Although the 
drug trade is believed to provide some financing to the Taliban, most 
experts believe it is largely an organized criminal enterprise. 
According to a major report on the Afghan drug industry jointly 
released last week by the World Bank and the U.N. Office on Drugs and 
Crime, key narcotics traffickers "work closely with sponsors in top 
government and political positions."

The report drew specific attention to the Afghan Interior Ministry, 
saying its officials were increasingly involved in providing 
protection for and facilitating consolidation of the drug industry in 
the hands of leading traffickers. "At the lower levels," the report 
said, "payments to police to avoid eradication or arrest reportedly 
are very widespread. At higher levels, provincial and district police 
chief appointments appear to be a tool for key traffickers and 
sponsors to exercise control and favor their proteges at middle 
levels in the drug industry."

Opium cultivation was outlawed during Taliban rule in the late 1990s 
and was nearly eliminated by 2001. After the overthrow of the Taliban 
government by U.S. forces in the fall of that year, the Bush 
administration said that keeping a lid on production was among its 
highest priorities. But corruption and alliances formed by Washington 
and the Afghan government with anti-Taliban tribal chieftains, some 
of whom are believed to be deeply involved in the trade, undercut the effort.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai recently noted that "once we thought 
terrorism was Afghanistan's biggest enemy" but said that now "poppy, 
its cultivation and drugs are Afghanistan's major enemy."

Eradication and alternative development programs have made little 
discernible headway. Cultivation -- measured annually with 
high-resolution satellite imagery that is then parsed by analysts 
using specialized computer software -- is nearly double its highest 
pre-Karzai level.

"There is supposed to be a tremendous energy associated with this," 
Jones said of the counter-narcotics programs, "but it needs a fresh 
look because . . . we're losing ground. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake