Pubdate: Sat, 23 Jun 2007 Source: Edmonton Journal (CN AB) Copyright: 2007 The Edmonton Journal Contact: http://www.canada.com/edmonton/edmontonjournal/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/134 Author: David Staples, The Edmonton Journal Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/poppy (poppy) PAYING TOP DOLLAR FOR POPPIES Coaxing Afghan farmers to plant crops other than poppies has been tried before. As the ultimate incentive, a Canadian general is advocating buying those alternative crops for the same price as opium EDMONTON - The first contact that an Afghan farmer will often have with Hamid Karzai's federal government in far-off Kabul is when an armed government convoy comes to bulldoze the crop in his field, says Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, the Canadian general who commanded NATO forces in southern Afghanistan last year. An Afghan farmer can make enough money to feed a family of five for a year by growing opium poppies on a plot the size of an average North American living room. "The Afghans don't see poppy any differently than you and I would look at canola," Fraser says. "It is a cash crop." Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of raw opium, and its crop is ever growing. In 1986, 29,000 hectares were under opium poppy cultivation. In 2006, after steady growth through the 1990s and explosive growth in recent years, the number was 165,000 hectares. But British and American policy insists upon the eradication of the opium industry. As a result, Afghan crews, supported by the local police and national army, are sent out to destroy poppy fields, which often inspires the farmers to take up arms against the Afghan central government and their Western allies. "It's a lose-lose situation for the government, for the international community, for the farmer, all because we have got this thing called poppy that we want to get rid of," Fraser says. "If we disenfranchise the people we are actually there to support, that's not the effect that you want." The $3-billion question when it comes to defeating the insurgent Taliban and stabilizing Afghanistan is what to do about the country's lucrative opium trade, which is estimated to make up more than half of the poor nation's economy? If the war is to be won, Fraser realizes it will take more than fierce fighting by Canadian forces -- the kind seen last September during Operation Medusa. Right now, the opium trade is fuelling the Taliban war machine in Afghanistan, but so is the American and British effort to eradicate the crop, Fraser says. Canadian military units in Afghanistan are so uncomfortable with the eradication program that they make sure they are well away when any eradicating efforts are going on, and they also tell the locals it is not their idea to deal with the issue in this way. But Fraser wants to take a more proactive approach, so he has come up with a new plan that he believes will go a long way in alleviating the poppy problem. His idea is to get Afghan farmers to plant an alternative crop, then have the Afghan government and the international community purchase that crop from the farmers for the same price as they would get for their opium. "Pay the people to grow another crop of their choosing, not our choosing. Pay them an inflated price that is akin to poppy," Fraser says. Farm subsidies are common in the developed world, he says. "Why don't we just do the same thing in this country? And it will give you the 40-per-cent solution. What we're going to do is put a little bit more money into the pocket of the farmer, and we've now interrupted the processing chain of the dope that is being produced and getting onto the streets of London and Moscow." Fraser says he has talked to various ambassadors in Afghanistan about his idea, and they listened to him keenly, partly because of the idea's merit, but also because Canada is now taken seriously, given the notable success of Canadian forces on the battlefield last summer and this fall in the Kandahar area. "We have got ourselves to the table because of what we have done," Fraser says. Operation Medusa was a high point in last year's campaign Fraser, who was in Afghanistan from February to November 2006, is particularly proud of Operation Medusa in September. It was the major Canadian battle of the 2006 Afghan campaign, which saw hundreds of Taliban killed and captured, as the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) drove Taliban militants from their strongholds in the Zhari and Panjwaii districts, thwarting their plans to launch attacks on Kandahar City. The operation started when the local governor told Fraser he wanted to get the grapes out of the lush grape-growing Panjwaii area to the west of Kandahar City, along the Arghandab River. The grape trade would restart the region's economic engine, the governor said. When Canadian troops and aid workers went in to start this process, they found the Taliban mustering for a series of attacks on Kandahar City, which would show all Afghans that NATO forces were weak, unable to protect the strategic heart of southern Afghanistan. Rather than charge in to fight the Taliban, Fraser says he and his officers approached tribal elders in the area and asked them for help. "You've got the power," was the Canadian message. "There's less than 1,000 of them (Taliban) out there, and there's one million in Kandahar province. Why don't you guys kick them the hell out of your communities and we're there to support you?" Fraser realized that the situation was critical, that if he and his forces couldn't deal with the Taliban here, Kandahar would fall and support for the NATO mission would crumble. He told his officers that failure was not an option. The Taliban started to use the local populations as human shields in skirmishes. It was clear that massive Canadian firepower was needed. In early September, Canadian and Afghan forces engaged the Taliban and beat them back. "The Taliban were soundly defeated for the first time in their history," Fraser says. "The Taliban made a big push and they lost. What that did is it created an opportunity to build." At the end of the battle, tribal elders approached Fraser and told him that they had had enough and would now side with the NATO forces. "For that battle, that was my victory, and the other thing was the confidence of the people in Kandahar that you can continue to see today -- there is hope now within the people that wasn't there this time last year." When Fraser arrived in Kandahar, he said, the streets were empty, but by the time he left the public market was thriving and there were traffic jams everywhere. "If the people are confident, commerce happens." Much progress has been made since Western forces first entered the country in 2001 to fight the Afghan-based, Taliban-backed al-Qaida terrorist organization. In the six years since then, the country has had free elections, developed a functioning parliament, and got six million children into school, one-third of those children being girls, Fraser says. Still, the country is the fifth poorest in the world, recovering from 30 years of civil war and trying to build itself as Taliban fighters continue to wreak havoc, especially in Kandahar province. There will be no quick and easy solutions here, Fraser says, as the country has no middle class and no government bureaucracy. In one province, the education minister is building many new schools, but he himself is illiterate. "It's a generational problem," Fraser says. "When does it get to the point where in fact it's running itself with less help? Twenty or 25 years." Dealing with the opium issue is key because some of the $800 million that flows back into Afghanistan from the $3-billion trade ends up in the hands of the Taliban. Think-tank is promoting a poppy-for-medicine project There is a growing movement to have the government take over from the drug lords and the Taliban as the major buyer of the opium harvest. The Senlis Council, an international policy think-tank with offices in Kabul, London, Paris and Brussels, is calling for the implementation of a poppy-for-medicine project. Afghan farmers would be licensed to legally grow poppies for the medicinal drugs morphine and codeine. Poppy farmers in Turkey and India have been employed in this way for decades. The Senlis Council is willing to fund a pilot project in Kandahar, says Senlis president Norine MacDonald. "A system in which poppy is cultivated under licence for the production of pain-killing medicines such as morphine or codeine would help to win back the hearts and minds of the local population because it re-engages with them and works with, rather than against, them." Liberal Leader Stephane Dion has said Canada should back the Senlis pilot project. "If we do not start to think creatively about the problem of the drug economy, the situation will never get better." But Brig.-Gen. Fraser is skeptical that such a plan would work because the drug lords are extremely powerful and the Afghan government is so weak. "We don't have a mature enough governmental system to make that work." Right now, Afghan drug lords order farmers to plant poppy fields or risk getting killed. At the same time, Taliban fighters shake down the local farmers, taking much of their opium profits to fund the war against Karzai and his allies. If the international community stepped in and bought much of the opium, the Taliban shakedown would continue, essentially meaning that Western governments would be buying Afghan opium and the money would go to the Taliban. "How do you think we can explain buying opiates and the money gets into the wrong guy's hands?" Fraser asks. "That's even worse." Afghan drug lords are far more difficult and dangerous to tackle than the Taliban, Fraser says. "I was there for nine months and I never once found a drug convoy. I knew in my estimates that if we came across a drug convoy that if you thought fighting the Taliban was hard, you try fighting that convoy, because we're talking huge money. Huge money. And these guys are ruthless. This was a very sophisticated operation here." Many drug dealers are simply businessmen who got into the drug trade in the lawless vaccum created in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban in 2001. The Karzai government has to determine which of the drug lords and warlords are willing to drop their illegal trade in favour of above-board business, Fraser says. American officials have talked about using aerial spraying of chemicals to destroy the poppy fields, but both Fraser and MacDonald of the Senlis Council are against this idea. "Aerial spraying will not achieve the effects that they want," Fraser says. "It will actually turn off all the people against the government and against us. As illiterate as the people are, they are not stupid, and they will turn against us." Adds MacDonald: "The U.S. will fuel more anger and resentment by spraying the Afghan poppy crops -- it is tantamount to chemical warfare." It's clear that the Karzai government needs another tool in its toolbox, and his idea of an alternative crop program will do the trick, Fraser says, though he admits that the Taliban will still shake down the farmers for money that they get from selling the alternative crop. Nonetheless, the plan is still better than the status quo because the Taliban won't be able to make money processing the food, as they do from helping to trade and process opium into heroin. But Fraser doesn't expect to see his plan implemented any time too soon. "There are no quick hits, no simple solutions. It is sailing a big ship and it takes time for that to turn." - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom