Drug trade in Afghanistan

Analysis:

This AP story begins by focusing on the increase in drug cultivation and drug trade in Afghanistan. The story cites Afghani General Mohammad Daud who claims that the international community isn’t doing enough to help them combat the booming opium trade, which according to the article, makes Afghanistan the number one heroin producing nation in the world, responsible for 90% of the world’s opium and heroin. The story shifts focus towards the end by looking at security issues in Afghanistan and that is the only time that other sources are cited, specifically UN and US military sources.

Gen. Daud is also cited in the story claiming that the Taliban is responsible for the drug trade as a way to “fund the rebel insurgency.” The story also says that the “international community is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into anti-drug campaigns to train police, arrest smugglers, destroy crops and help farmers grow legal crops.” What the story did not say was that according to the UN office of Drugs and Crime “These efforts are undermined by police and government officials who profit from what is Afghanistan’s largest industry.” Even the U.S. State Department expressed similar concerns last month, “suggesting that rising corruption would fuel growth in Afghanistan’s opium trade in 2006.” One question that is not asked in this story is how is it that Afghanistan has become the largest opium and heroin producer when the US has militarily occupied and controlled most of the country since early 2002?

Story:

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN – The international community has been “very slow” to combat Afghanistan’s booming trade in opium and heroin, while the Taliban has forced farmers to plant poppies to fund the rebel insurgency, the country’s top anti-drug official said Monday.

The warning came as a U.S. soldier and two civilians were wounded in a suicide bombing, the latest in a series of militant attacks. About 1,600 people died in such violence last year, making it the deadliest since the Taliban was ousted in 2001.

The anti-drug czar, Gen. Mohammed Daud Daud, promised a crackdown on drug smugglers in 2006. Last year’s bumper opium crop — enough to make about 450 tons of heroin — sparked warnings the country is fast becoming a “narco-state” four years after the U.S.-led invasion ousted the Taliban for harboring al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.

The international community is pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into anti-drug campaigns to train police units to destroy laboratories, arrest smugglers and destroy opium crops, as well as to fund projects to help farmers grow legal crops.

But Daud said the United States and other nations must do more to help eradicate narcotics in Afghanistan, the source of nearly 90 percent of the world’s opium and heroin, especially providing alternative sources of income for farmers.

“In 2005, we were not satisfied and the farmers were not satisfied,” Daud, the deputy interior minister and commander of a special anti-drugs force, said in an interview. “We need to increase alternative livelihoods for the farmers.”

He added that despite promises of help to curb poppy cultivation, the international community’s “action has been very slow,” and accused the Taliban of forcing farmers to grow opium. “They used to fund themselves through drug sales and they are now doing their best to continue this,” Daud said. The general said 1,300 police officers would be deployed this month from Kabul to provinces where help is needed to enforce the anti-poppy campaign. Speaking to reporters earlier Monday, Daud said 2006 “will be the year when we will arrest all smugglers, especially those working with the government.”

Afghanistan’s drug trade is blamed for fighting in some poppy-growing areas, especially southern provinces.
The suicide attack Monday that wounded a U.S. soldier and two Afghan civilians occurred in the main southern Afghan city of Kandahar. The assailant detonated explosives packed in a car near a U.S. convoy.

Meanwhile, in a move that has raised fears of further attacks on foreigners, the government ordered the U.S. Embassy, the U.N. and other organizations to remove security barriers blocking streets in the capital and causing traffic jams.

Kabul’s streets are dotted with large concrete barriers aimed at protecting offices and homes. Many organizations have closed off whole streets.

U.N. spokesman Adrian Edwards said the barricades are necessary “security provisions for doing our work here.” U.S. military spokesman Lt. Col. Laurent Fox said many international groups have “voiced their concerns regarding the government’s proposal.”