Britain hits low point in drug war in Afghanistan.

Cutting opium production was a reason for the UK to send troops to Afghanistan? Comical. Of course before the Taliban were thrown out they had successfully stopped most poppy production and even been rewarded for doing so. Now production is such that over 90 percent of world supply comes from Afghanistan. It is not just the farmers in the area of production but dealers and manufacturers of opium throughout Afghanistan are the problem and as the article notes there are connections to important political and other figures. By the way cutting down production will not necessarily stop funding from the drug trade to the Taliban. The big profits go not to the farmers but to other links in the chain. Cutting production just raises prices and the middlemen's incomes will not decline just those of farmers who will want to throw NATO and the US out as well as kill those who colloborate.

Britain hits low point in opium war
5:00AM Wednesday August 29, 2007



Poppies are flourishing in Afghanistan where opium production is 34 per cent higher than last year. Photo / Reuters
KABUL - Britain faces a war on two fronts in Afghanistan, following the revelation that the province where British troops are deployed has become the biggest source of illicit drugs in the world.

In an annual survey of opium production released this week, the United Nations reported that Helmand province had produced 48 per cent more opium compared to its record-breaking crop last year.

Opium production in Afghanistan as a whole had reached a "frighteningly new level" at 8200 tonnes, 34 per cent higher than last year, the report said.

British troops sent to back up reconstruction efforts in Helmand have been pinned down in the volatile province by resurgent Taleban fighters, who have a stranglehold over the drugs trade, which is funding the resistance.

Although another record opium crop had been expected, the massive jump in the Helmand output since 2006 reflects the level of insecurity in the province, where the insurgency has deepened over the past year. British commanders have described the conflict as the most intense since the Korean war.





Alongside the fight against al Qaeda after the September 11 attacks in 2001, cutting opium production in Afghanistan was one of the main justifications for British involvement in military action in Afghanistan. Opium provides the raw material for heroin.

When he was Prime Minister, Tony Blair repeatedly referred to the fact that Afghan heroin accounts for an overwhelming proportion of the drug available on the streets of Britain and agreed to lead the international coalition's anti-narcotics effort. But yesterday the government was accused by its critics of "failing spectacularly".

"An astonishing 50 per cent of the whole Afghan opium crop comes from one single province: Helmand," said the UN office on drugs and crime in its report. Although cultivation of the opium poppy had decreased in parts of Afghanistan, "where anti-government forces reign, poppies flourish".


"With just 2.5 million inhabitants, this relatively rich southern province has become the world's biggest source of illicit drugs, surpassing the output of entire countries such as Colombia (coca), Morocco (cannabis) and Burma (opium) - which have populations up to 20 times larger."

The head of the UN agency, Antonio Maria Costa, said: "No other country in the world has ever had such a large amount of farmland used for illegal activity, beside China 100 years ago," when it was an opium producer.

He urged Nato to more actively support counter-narcotics operations. "Since drugs are funding insurgency, Afghanistan's military and its allies have a vested interest in destroying heroin labs, closing opium markets and bringing traffickers to justice. Tacit acceptance of opium trafficking is undermining stabilisation efforts."

Britain, which is boosting the number of troops in Helmand to a total 7700 by the end of the northern hemisphere summer, backs greater involvement by Nato in crop eradication, by providing protection and logistical help for Afghan forces involved in the effort.

Diplomats stressed however that British soldiers would not be directly involved in crop eradication.

Given the dramatic failure of the strategy in curbing the opium poppy cultivation, future policy is expected to focus more on forced eradication by a specialised Afghan unit. Britain has already announced an additional £22.5 million ($59 million) for the Afghan interdiction forces.

It is generally admitted that efforts led by the province's governor, Asadullah Wafa have been disappointing since he took on the job eight months ago.

Government corruption, particularly what Costa calls the Karzai administration's "benign tolerance of corruption" is also blamed for the explosion in the opium crop.

Last month Britain's all-party Commons Defence Committee issued a highly critical report on drugs eradication in Afghanistan, that warned that uncertainty among Afghans about the role of international forces could put service personnel at risk.

In a statement, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said: "The international community is united in its desire to prevent Afghanistan once again becoming a failed state."

He said that progress would be measured "across a wide range of activity - covering governance, reconstruction, economic development and the building up of local security forces."

A Foreign Office spokesman acknowledged that the figures for Helmand were "particularly disappointing".

The spokesman added that "ridding Afghanistan of this curse will take a generation, perhaps more - in Thailand and Pakistan it took 15 to 20 years. There are no short cuts to ending the drug trade and we must be wary of silver bullet solutions, which will not work. "

- Independent

UN horrified by increase in Afghanistan opium production

The article leaves out some important facts. Although production may be most in the south certainly the drug trade is also in the north. No doubt many who profit from the trade are also in the government or "former" warlords. While Taliban no doubt are involved there are countless others including many supporters of the Karzai government. Another fact that is left out is that during the Taliban era they were paid to stop production and did so. Colin Powell presented them a check for their good work not all that long before everything turned sour and after 9/11 of course there was no more dealing with the Taliban. The Taliban never did completely stop drug dealing.
Anyway the mission in Afghanistan can at least record one outstanding economic success.

UN horrified by surge in opium trade in Helmand


Despite 7,000 UK troops, Taliban-backed production up 48%

Declan Walsh
Tuesday August 28, 2007
The Guardian


Britain's drug policy in Afghanistan's Helmand province lay in tatters yesterday as the UN declared a "frightening" explosion in opium production across the country, led by Taliban-backed farmers in the volatile south. Opium production soared by 34% to 8,200 tonnes, accounting for 93% of world supply and most of the heroin sold in Britain and Europe, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime reported.
The record crop was fuelled by Helmand, where, despite the deployment of 7,000 British soldiers and millions of pounds in development spending, opium cultivation surged by 48%.


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The sprawling and violent province is now the world's single largest source of illegal drugs - greater than coca from Colombia, cannabis from Morocco or heroin from Burma, countries with populations up to 20 times greater.
A despondent UNODC noted that no other country has produced illegal narcotics on such a scale since China in the 19th century. "The situation is dramatic and getting worse by the day," said its director general, Antonio Maria Costa.

The sole bright spot was a sharp fall in poppy cultivation in the north, where the number of drug-free provinces doubled from six to 13. Balkh province, which produced 7,200 tonnes last year, eliminated poppy cultivation entirely. The disparity highlights a widening gap between relatively stable northern Afghanistan, where the Kabul government enjoys some authority, and the insurgency-racked south, where it has virtually none.

Favourable weather, Taliban insurgents and corrupt government officials all contributed to this year's record poppy haul, which has edged Afghanistan perilously close to becoming a full narco-state. The opium trade involves 3.3 million of Afghanistan's 23 million population, according to the UNODC, and accounts for more than half of its estimated $7.5bn (£3.7bn) gross domestic product.

Western countries, led by the US, have spent several billion pounds trying to eradicate the trade since 2001. But it has only grown stronger, and this year's dismal results are likely to revive a controversial debate on aerial crop spraying that pits America against the UK.

The US ambassador, William Wood, who was previously posted to Colombia, advocates dispatching squadrons of pesticide-filled crop duster planes to spray the poppy fields. Ground-based eradication destroyed 19,000 hectares this year, or one tenth of the total crop. But British and Afghan officials are trenchantly opposed to aerial spraying, arguing that it would only anger Afghan farmers and drive their families into the arms of the Taliban.

The Taliban have firmly entrenched themselves in the trade. Having vehemently opposed opium as "un-Islamic" in 2000, when the crop was virtually eliminated, the insurgents are now among its greatest champions. In Helmand, Taliban fighters protect poppy-growing farmers in exchange for a slice of their profits, and some commanders help to smuggle drugs. Their profits pay for arms, logistics and militia wages, the UN said.

Embarrassingly for the British, the Taliban have also linked poppy growing with military strategy. The town of Musa Qala, which the British military ceded to Taliban control last February, has become a major drugs hub. Opium is traded openly in the town bazaar and heroin processing labs have moved to the area.

The drug barons run little risk of being caught. No major smuggler has been arrested in Afghanistan since 2001. Yesterday Mr Costa urged President Hamid Karzai to submit a dozen major traffickers - whom he did not name - to the UN Security Council for inclusion on a Taliban sanctions list.

Frustrated western anti-narcotics specialists are also searching for fresh ideas that work. A senior British official said the UK will spend £10m on development projects in Helmand and contribute to a £13m "good performance" fund that rewards drug-free provinces.

Nato may also take a more aggressive role. Although western soldiers will not slash through fields of poppy - something British soldiers have always avoided - their commanders may start to target insurgents who double as drug smugglers. "There will be an overlap between counter-narcotics and counter-insurgency targets. We want people who are big in the insurgency and drugs to realise they don't enjoy impunity," said the British official.

But, he admitted, there was no silver bullet to kill the trade: "I expect it will be a long time before this problem is solved."