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Terror war threatens drug battle
20/09/2001 23:51 - (SA)
Islamabad - The US war on terrorism could threaten the success of a battle that Washington has been waging since Nancy Reagan first urged America to "just say no" nearly 20 years ago.
United Nations officials said on Thursday the current crisis gripping Afghanistan in the wake of the attacks on Washington and New York could undermine the "remarkable" progress the Taliban-ruled area of the country has made in halting drug production.
Despite being considered a pariah by almost every government in the world, Afghanistan's ruling Taliban have succeeded in virtually wiping out poppy farming in areas they control.
Taliban's remarkable achievement
And they have done this voluntarily, without compensation to the farmers who depend on the crop for their livelihood, and without the promise of reward or international recognition for doing so.
"It has been a remarkable achievement," said Bernard Frahi, the regional representative for the UN's Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention for Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Last year, over 80 000 hectares of poppies were cultivated in Afghanistan, producing 75% of the world's heroin supply and nearly 90% of Europe's. But this year the UN believes not a single hectare may have been grown in the 95% of Afhganistan controlled by the Taliban.
The same is not true, however, of areas controlled by the opposition Northern Alliance, where what used to amount to 10% of Aghanistan's opium is still produced.
Drugs are 'un-Islamic'
The UN is still compiling its latest report, but a spokesperson said if the trend of the last two years continued, the Taliban could be credited with carrying out the most successful drug-eradication programmes in history.
The turn-around came when the Taliban's spiritual leader, Mullah Mohammad Omar, issued an edict last year declaring the cultivation of narcotic crops as "un-Islamic".
Mullah Omar's edicts are strictly enforced by the Taliban's religious police - officially known as the Department for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice - and severe punishments are meted out to those who flout them.
"It could be a turning point," Kemal Kurspahic told Reuters from Geneva. "It is an historic opportunity to seriously undermine the world's supply of opiate derivatives and heroin."
The UN drug office assists countries in trying to persuade farmers to growing alternative crops and raising funds to help them make the transition.
Pendulum could swing
Little known is the fact that the United States has contributed significantly to those programmes in Taliban- controlled Afghanistan.
Officials say, however, that all the recent successes could be undermined by the current crisis and a change of regime in Kabul could swing the pendulum the other way.
"In the current atmosphere it is impossible to say something good about the Taliban, but the fact is they have a much better record than the Northern Alliance or previous regimes," said a Western diplomat who asked not to be named.
"You cannot say that any change of government would result in the drug policy still being enforced. In fact, most of my colleagues believe the opposite is true."
Other officials say the Taliban may have no qualms about reversing their anti-drug edict if they need to raise money to defend themselves against a United States-led effort to unseat them.
Taliban used to tax poppy farmers
In previous years, the Taliban imposed a tax on poppy farmers that netted their meagre treasury around US$10 million a year, according to the UN.
The farmers made around US$90 million last year from the sale of opium resin extracted from poppy seed-head. With heroin selling at around US$200 per gram in Europe, the street value is billions of dollars.
In the short term, however, the crisis is likely to reduce the amount of heroin reaching the streets of the west as increased security along Afghanistan's borders by its neighbours will restrict outflows of opium and heroin processed from last year's crop.
"People are not going to feel pressure immediately, and we don't really know how much heroin may be stockpiled by the traffickers," Kurspahic said.
"But it will be felt - perhaps next year when the result of no crop from this year develops. Purity will go down, prices will rise and shortages will result."
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