Afghan violence 'drug-related'

2006-07-29 16:51

Kabul - A major part of the violence in southern Afghanistan was due to opium poppy cultivation and drug trafficking, said the commander of Nato forces in the country on Saturday.

"I'm convinced that much of the violence is only caused by the drug-related activities in the south," said British general David Richards.

Richards assumes command for all international troops based in the violence-plagued south of Afghanistan on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference, Richards said there was an inextricable link between opium and the violence seen, for example, in the southern Helmand province.

Afghanistan is the world's main producer of opium, from which morphine and heroin is derived.

Richards said traffickers had benefited from the near total absence of central government authority in the south and also from the low number of international troops stationed in the area since the toppling of the country's Taliban government in 2001.

"The opium trade is being threatened by the Nato expansion into the south and they are going to fight very hard to keep what they have got and a lot of what we are seeing has nothing to do with any ideological commitment" said Richards.

He said there was no question of attacking the poppy farmers, who he described as more victims than perpetrators of the drug trade.

They would depend on the Nato development plan for Afghanistan, said Richards, to convince farmers to change crops.

- AFP