Pubdate: Tue, 21 Oct 2008 Source: Guardian, The (UK) Copyright: 2008 Guardian Newspapers Limited Contact: http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardian/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/175 Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topics/afghanistan OUR DEADLY EXPORT A solution to the problem of opium trafficking from Afghanistan is as far away as it ever was Nushin Arbabzadah guardian.co.uk, Monday October 20 2008 16.30 BST "It's because of you people that our children are dying of heroin addiction," said my boss years ago when I worked at a German TV station. He had just found out that I was Afghan. I stood my ground but I never forgot his words. Recently, President Karzai has been hearing similar views. That's why when he tours the west, he often apologises on behalf of his people: sorry for the poppies! Then back home he tells Afghans that drugs have tarnished their reputation abroad. For the majority of Afghan poppy farmers, reputation is the least of their worries. One of them summed up the reason: "Do you think they give us visas to go abroad anyway?" Their concerns is much more acute. If you click on this link at about three minutes into the footage you see poppy eradication in action in Helmand province. A horrified boy, crying and pointing at noisy tractors that are mowing down the poppies, is saying, "They are destroying our poppies. How are we going to eat with no money?" This is what Afghans call zolom, injustice and oppression of biblical proportions, as embodied in the qur'anic stories of the pharaohs. The Taliban understood this, exploited the situation and came to the farmers' rescue. Click here and four and a half minutes into the footage you'll hear the sound of Taliban machine guns attacking an eradication team in Urozgan. Read this article to understand that the Taliban is using suicide bombers to attack government eradication campaigns. This is the Afghan side of the story. The government is protecting serious drug smugglers, while small farmers are forced to seek Taliban protection. Little wonder, than, that Afghans compare their government to a bowl of thin soup, it's so watery and lacking in substance. Now let's look at the story outside of Afghanistan. I learned about this aspect between early 2005 and end of 2007 when poppies entered my professional life. As part of my job I'd sift through hundreds of local and international reports on the Afghan drugs trade and compile a monthly summary. The first time I saw the pile of reports, my trainer reassured me: "You'll get a feel for it. Look out for new trends, official policy announcements and arrests." Sounds exciting, right? But I'm afraid I have to disappoint you. There were very few arrests, most of them along the Tajik border where petty smugglers were either caught or injured in shoot-outs. There was clearly not much money involved because on the way back from Tajikistan, solitary smugglers often tried to steal some cows to make up their profits. As to foreign countries' policies, such was their repetitive nature that I soon had them memorised. You could wake me up from deep sleep at three in the morning and ask: What's Russia's stance on Afghan drugs? And I'd shoot back: "Angry at Nato's failure to control the situation and a desire for greater involvement. And they keep talking about the need for a security belt to cut off southern Russia from Afghan drug-trafficking routes. They plan to open an office in Kabul and they offer training to Afghan officials." (More recently, 18 Afghan officials expected for training in Russia didn't show up, much to Russian annoyance. It seems the Afghan side has some trust issues.) And the Iranians? Also angry with Nato for the same reason. They say they are losing soldiers in shoot-outs with drug traffickers. They have threatened to build a wall along the Afghan border. There are reports that underage Afghan drug smugglers are kept imprisoned in Iran until they turn 18 when they can be hanged. Iranian officials denied the reports. The US? Keep suggesting aerial spraying. In one village the population suspected secret overnight spraying when they woke up to find mysterious diseases had affected their crop and livestock. Kabul promised an investigation but nothing happened. The UK? Against spraying but otherwise dithering, with no clear plan. Incidentally, the Taliban is equally divided when it comes to drugs policy. Some Taliban believe that rolling a joint after a good day of fighting is fine since Islam only bans alcohol explicitly but not cannabis. Others believe that the ban includes alcohol and all drugs. There has been some serious theological hairsplitting on this in Pakistan's Waziristan. In view of this chaotic situation, it's not surprising that when it comes to the relationship between the drugs trade and the west, the Afghan rumor bazaar is bustling. Let me introduce you to one of the more outlandish theories making rounds and gaining ground. The theory is that the foreign forces stationed in Afghanistan are themselves involved in drug smuggling. What kind of feverish mind could have come up with this surreal story, you are asking? The answer is simple: Hollywood. The guilty party seems to have been the recent Ridley Scott movie American Gangster, which has fuelled people's imagination in Afghanistan about the way the west gets its drugs. The theory is that the film is not fictional but draws inspiration from what is happening in Afghanistan right now. In other words, that US army planes leave Afghanistan carrying coffins empty of bodies but filled with drugs. The champions of this conspiracy theory say this explains why poppy production has increased in exactly the same provinces where foreign troops are stationed. The rumour has now taken on pan-Asian proportions. Look at what happened when Ali Larijani, Iran's parliamentary speaker, recently went to Geneva. He told Andres Johnson, the secretary general of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, "The majority of Afghan drugs are transported to the west via three airports that are under Nato control." The report was given the title: "Revealed: The role of Nato airbases in transporting Afghan drugs to Europe". Iranian websites endlessly reproduced it. Against this background of mistrust, it's not surprising that Nato's recent announcement that its troops are to directly target the drugs business fell flat. Zalmai Afzali, the spokesperson for the Afghan counter-narcotics ministry, told a local newspaper: "We are not overtly optimistic because in the past too Nato made many promises that never materialised." Hajji Hanif Hanifi, an MP from Uruzgan province, said: "I don't think they'll succeed because in the last seven years, despite huge amounts of money and the use of the police force, the government failed to stop drug smuggling. So they are not going to succeed in the future either." The Afghan paper Hasht-e Sobh had a different angle. An editorial headlined "Yet another strategic change" said, "The main facilitators, the biggest drug smugglers, do not reside in Afghanistan. Hence, it's not going to be easy to catch or arrest them." The paper drew comparison to the failed search for Osama bin Laden and concluded with the words, "We have no reason to be optimistic." With no clear and coherent drug policy between the Afghan government, the neighbouring countries and the wider international community, few Afghans on the ground believe that the drugs business can be curbed. - --- MAP posted-by: Larry Seguin