Pubdate: Sat, 24 Feb 2007
Source: San Jose Mercury News (CA)
Copyright: 2007 San Jose Mercury News
Contact:  http://www.mercurynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/390
Author: Noor Khan
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/poppy (poppy)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/areas/Afghanistan (Afghanistan)

AFGHAN ANTI-OPIUM EFFORT INTENSIFIES

U.S.-Backed Plan Angers Farmers, May Aid Taliban

DOBUNDI, Afghanistan - (AP) Anguish creased the weathered face of the 
opium farmer as a U.S.-trained eradication team swept through his 
farm fields in this southern Afghan village.

With helicopters buzzing overhead, dozens of tractors plowed up 
Sadullah Khan's sprouting poppy plants, which in two months time 
would have yielded the sticky resin used to make heroin -- and earned 
him, by Afghan standards, a generous income.

After failing miserably to curb opium production last year, the 
Afghan government has launched a renewed eradication drive, 
particularly here in Helmand province -- which accounted for more 
than 40 percent of 2006's record yield of 6,725 tons. The U.S. 
government estimates the opium trade generates $3 billion a year in 
illicit economic activity.

There is some armed resistance to the campaign in Helmand, where drug 
gangs and Taliban militants form a powerful nexus against President 
Hamid Karzai's unpopular government. Still, counter-narcotics 
officials expect better results this year -- if not a resounding success.

That's cold comfort to Khan, a 55-year-old father of nine, who owns 
25 acres of land planted with poppies.

"When they are eradicating my poppy, it's just like they are 
destroying my home," he said, watching the heavily armed Afghan teams 
at work -- supported by a handful of U.S. contractors, who rode in 
pairs through the rolling poppy fields on all-terrain vehicles.

There are fears the program could increase support for Taliban 
insurgents, but Karzai is under growing international pressure to 
crack down on Afghan drug production.

Last week, President Bush called poppy cultivation a threat to 
Afghanistan's fragile democracy. Bush said he had told Karzai "to 
gain the confidence of his people, and the confidence of the world, 
he's got to do something about it, with our help."

The year 2006 saw an alarming 59 percent rise in opium cultivation to 
407,700 acres, deepening fears that Afghanistan is rapidly becoming a 
narco-state.

A Western counter-narcotics official said it was too early for an 
accurate prediction of this year's crop, but he listed some positive signs.

Cultivation probably will drop significantly in the north and 
northeast while increasing slightly in some areas of the south, said 
the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the 
sensitivity of the issue.

The government, he said, has launched eradication "earlier and with 
more determination" than last year and has warned officials they 
would be fired if they didn't take action.

Lt. Gen. Mohammed Daoud Daoud, the deputy interior minister for 
counter-narcotics, said 8,900 acres of poppy fields have been 
destroyed nationwide in the past month. The target is to destroy 
almost 14 times that figure -- a total of 123,550 acres -- before the 
harvest, which runs from April to July, from the south to the colder north.

The Western official doubted that target will be reached. But he said 
he hoped that 15 percent to 20 percent of the planted fields will be 
eradicated to demonstrate the "business risk" to poppy growers. Last 
year, only about 8 percent of planted fields were destroyed.

The campaign, supported mainly by the United States and Britain, 
carries a political and military risk for the government and its 
Western allies. It could generate more recruits for the Taliban, the 
militia that is threatening a spring offensive against NATO forces.

There have been five attacks in the past two weeks against the 
eradication campaign in Helmand, Farah and Nangarhar provinces, Daoud 
said. In the worst incident, a roadside bomb in Helmand's Nad Ali 
district killed two police officers and wounded three serving as 
guards for the eradication team.

To mitigate the risk of a backlash by farmers, authorities say they 
are targeting areas where there's little reason not to grow crops 
like wheat and vegetables -- rather than dry, remote fields where 
farmers may feel forced to cultivate opium because they lack good 
irrigation or market access.

Most eradication efforts are led by provincial governors who pay 
their teams with U.S. money. But there's also a well-equipped, 
550-man national eradication force under the Ministry of Interior, 
which is advised by the U.S. security contractor DynCorp.

This force has deployed to areas with increased poppy cultivation -- 
in Nad Ali, for example, where vast poppy fields are irrigated by 
canals fed by the Helmand River.

This week, angry farmers in Dobundi village watched as uniformed men 
on tractors plowed up foot-tall poppy plants. Counter-narcotics 
officials say the farmers should have time to replant with legal crops.

In other villages, farmers have flooded fields to obstruct the 
tractors. Dobundi's farmers put up no resistance, but they complained 
bitterly, contending that security forces targeted them because the 
area is less dangerous than elsewhere in Helmand.

"If the Taliban were in Nad Ali, the government couldn't come here," 
said one farmer, Darath Khan.

He said Karzai's government had failed to bring security or 
development, despite the foreign aid that has poured into Afghanistan 
over the past five years.

Sadullah Khan spoke for many farmers when he described his dilemma. 
"I know it's not good to cultivate poppy, but we don't have any other 
option," he said. "If we can't cultivate it, we can't feed our families."

He said his poppy crop earns him four times what a crop of wheat would.

If Sadullah Khan were allowed to harvest his poppies, his 25 acres 
probably would yield about 815 pounds of opium, which would fetch 
about $37,000 at market, the counter-narcotics official said.

Still, Sadullah Khan owns a relatively large farm in one of the 
best-irrigated and fertile regions in the country. By planting wheat 
he could, by his estimate, earn roughly $9,250 -- a good income in 
rural Afghanistan. Associated Press writer Matthew Pennington in 
Kabul contributed to this report.
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