Afghanistan faces new battle against drugs as US withdraws

By Liu Yunlong Source:Global Times Published: 2013-8-1 0:38:03

Shabna, 10, holds her cousin Faranhaz, 2, in the poppy field as the harvest continues on May 31, 2011 in Fayzabad, Badakhshan, Afghanistan. Photo: CFP
Shabna, 10, holds her cousin Faranhaz, 2, in the poppy field as the harvest continues on May 31, 2011 in Fayzabad, Badakhshan, Afghanistan. Photo: CFP


The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) formally handed over the last 95 Afghan districts to local forces on June 18, including the divided south of the country, half under the control of the Taliban and which remains the nerve center of opium production.

With international forces pulling out of Afghanistan, the future of drug control in the country faces multiple challenges as the ability and commitment of government forces is doubtful.

ISAF has barely done anything to eradicate drug production in Afghanistan, and the drug-trafficking problem may worsen in the near future, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated at a meeting of the Russian Security Council on May 9.

"One of the biggest failures of US-led international troops has been in curbing narcotics-related terrorism," Sanjay Kumar, an Indian journalist and regular visitor to Afghanistan, told the Global Times.

"The US is leaving Afghanistan in a worse state than in 2001," said Kumar.

According to the timetable, the US troops and its allies will completely withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. For the US, the war is drawing to a close, but for Afghans, the war on drugs remains alongside the conflict with the Taliban.

Kingdom of opium

"Afghanistan remains by far the largest source country for opiates worldwide, occupying around 74 percent of world opium production," said the World Drug Report 2013 released by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) on June 26. Afghanistan is mentioned more than 90 times in the report.

According to the UNODC report, Afghanistan maintains its position as the lead producer and cultivator of opium globally. Its illicit cultivation of opium poppies reached peak levels in 2012, surpassing the 10-year high record in 2007.

Afghanistan is also emerging as a large drug market with around 1 million addicts, just over 3 percent of the population and including a growing number of women and children.

"In the winter, it's not rare to see women and children injecting drugs on dry riverbeds in Kabul," Chen Shan, a journalist with Xinhua, told the Global Times in Afghanistan.

"In northern Afghanistan and southern Afghanistan, there are whole addicted families and even children are addicted to opium," Amir Akbari, a local reporter in Kabul, told the Global Times.

Akbari said that many Afghan women and children are suffering from chronic illnesses and need help. But due to a lack of medicine, they can only choose opium as a cheap and quick way to relief pain.

Drug economy

Wang Dehua, chief of Institute of South and Central Asia Studies at Shanghai Center for International Studies, told the Global Times that the drug problem is caused by complicated reasons.

"Afghanistan has a long history of growing opium poppies that was once mainly used as medical herbs to cure diseases. The output used to be low, but since the Soviet Union's invasion into the country in 1970s, the opium cultivation and production has increased drastically with continuing unrest," said Wang.

"In Afghanistan almost all the deals take place with the knowledge of the Taliban. Drug traffickers bribe or give a commission to the local Taliban commander or group for free and easy passage," said Kumar.

"Poppies are mostly grown in southern Afghanistan, in the provinces where the security is bad, such as Helmand and Kandahar," said Akbari. "Afghanistan is a very poor nation and the education level is low. Many people in southern Afghanistan don't know right or wrong about the drug production, because they only care about the income."

Wang said Taliban published a strict order in 2000 to prohibit the cultivation of poppies and then opium production fell sharply in 2001. "With the entrance of US troops, drug control was interrupted."

"Opium has become the main financial source of the Taliban and it certainly supports the industry. In fact, the Taliban is very popular among famers and local tribes prefer to work with the Taliban for protection from corrupt officials, which makes it difficult for the Afghan government and US troops to curb opium planting," said Wang.

"I think most people in Afghanistan prefer to cultivate poppies, because they think that the international community has not assisted us and the international community has not provided us security. So they think poppies are good for Afghanistan," said Akbari.

Gloomy future

Akbari told the Global Times that the poppy harvest in Afghanistan would increase after the withdrawal of international forces.

"The Afghanistan government will now find it difficult to control opium, because the people are poor, security is unusual and international (forces) have withdrawn. So production will certainly increase."

"One of the reasons why the Taliban succeeded in regrouping itself was the spurt in the narcotics trade after initial curb on its production. The failure of the international community is quite stark in Afghanistan. As people's means of earning are shrinking, opium production will remain the only viable medium for income," said Kumar.

"It is impossible to put an end to opium in a short period. Security is an important factor, and unless security is established, it is impossible to stop drug trafficking," said Akbari, adding that the government should first ensure security and provide more jobs.

Akbari said that there should be mechanisms in place to curb the opium production, which requires the Afghan government and the international community to work together on both short-term and long-term actions.

"Afghanistan's drug problem is not just a domestic one. The drugs produced here are trafficked to Asia, Europe and America, and so it needs international efforts to curb the bulging drug center," said Wang.



Posted in: Asia in Focus

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