AFGHANISTAN: NARCO-CARTELS A GROWING THREAT, UN DRUG AGENCY WARNS
Aunohita Mojumdar
Eurasia Insight
ticles/eav090209.shtml
9/02/09
A report released September 2 by the United Nations Office on Drugs
and Crime has good news and bad news about narcotics cultivation and
trafficking in Afghanistan. The good news is that 800,000 Afghan
farmers have stopped cultivating poppies; the bad is that those
who continue to grow illicit crops are becoming more efficient, and
traders are forging stronger ties with criminal and insurgent groups,
as well as corrupt officials.
The UNODC report, titled Afghan Opium Survey 2009, documents a decline
in opium cultivation in Afghanistan for the second consecutive year,
dropping by as much 22 percent since 2008. Prices for opiates are also
at a 10-year low. But, signaling improved efficiency, the production
of narcotics from poppy plants was down only 10 percent.
Good news is deeply entangled with the bad. Helmand, a province with
a notorious reputation for the drug trade, showed a one-third decrease
in areas used for poppy cultivation. Nevertheless, the province still
accounts for the lion’s share — 56 percent — of poppies grown in
Afghanistan, according to the report.
Officials say several factors contributed to the gains made in the
anti-drug fight, including more robust counter-narcotics operations
by Afghan security and NATO forces, stronger provincial leadership,
and favorable market conditions for the cultivation and sale of
other crops.
The UNODC declared the strategy of eradication a continuing
"failure" noting that, despite the enormous human and economic
cost, only 4 percent of the crop had been effectively eradicated
with force. Speaking with the media in Kabul on September 2, UNODC
Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa criticized the continuing
collusion between the drug trade and corrupt government officials
and questioned some recent actions by the Afghan government.
"Drug lords should be brought to justice, not executed in violation
of international law or pardoned for political expediency,"
he said. President Hamid Karzai recently pardoned several drug
smugglers including a relative of his election campaign manager. The
international community had earlier criticized the Afghan government
for executing drug smugglers, arguing that a weak criminal justice
system lacking checks and balances made such executions suspect. Costa
expressed concern about the pardon and release of traffickers, adding
that corruption was "an enabling factor" and "major lubricant" to
the drug trade.
While welcoming the good news at a "time of pessimism about the
situation in Afghanistan," Costa cautioned against foreseeing a trend,
warning that stockpiling and a fluctuating opium market were also
contributing factors to the decline. "Is it a trend or a market
correction?" Costa asked rhetorically. "Hopefully the former, and
certainly the latter."
In a well-attended news conference held jointly with Minister of
Counter Narcotics General Khodaidad Khodaidad, and UN Deputy Special
Representative for Afghanistan Peter Galbraith, Costa warned that new
links among insurgents and criminal groups were "spawning narco-cartels
in Afghanistan linked to the Taliban."
The linkage between poppy cultivation and insurgency is growing. "Like
never before, the fates of counter-narcotics and counter insurgency
are inextricably linked," Costa added.
Costa also expressed concern about opium stockpiling. He estimated
that 10,000 tons had accumulated, and described this burgeoning
stockpile as a "ticking-bomb" that needed to be uncovered and defused.
Speaking to EurasiaNet after the news conference, Costa emphasized
the importance of law enforcement, good governance and delivery of
aid to provinces that had performed well. "Control of territory"
and security will be crucial to maintaining momentum in the anti-drug
fight. Greater development assistance needs to be delivered faster,
more efficiently and through fewer intermediaries, he said.
The risks to cultivators and drug lords had been low until Afghan
security forces and international forces began carrying out more
robust operations, Costa added. "The impunity enjoyed thus far by
the Afghan drug economy is under threat," he noted.
The UNODC report documented that the number of poppy-free provinces
increased from 18 last year to 20 in 2009, including Kapisa,
Baghlan and Faryab. But Nangarhar, which was poppy free last year,
lost that coveted status to become a poppy-producing province
once again. Reversals also included Badghis Province, where poppy
cultivation increased tenfold from 500 to 5000 hectares in the past
year, according to the UNODC report. Overall, Afghanistan has 34
provinces.
Though many observers have become concerned that cannabis is replacing
opium in areas that have successfully beaten back poppy growth, no
such figures were included in the report. UNODC Country Representative
Jean-Luc Lemahieu told EurasiaNet that such figures were expected in
January of 2010. Satellite imaging technology used to detect cannabis
is more exacting than that for poppy and the UNODC only recently
acquired the funding to undertake such a study. Lemahieu emphasized
that the linkages between cannabis production and insurgency were
not as strong as with opium.
Costa called for a regional approach to Afghanistan’s drug problem,
emphasizing the need to widen antinarcotics programs to Iran and
the Central Asian states. To that end, the UNODC has brokered a
Trilateral Initiative involving Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan to
share counter-narcotics intelligence and run joint operations. It
has also created a Central Asia Intelligence Centre, headquartered
in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
"Controlling drugs in Afghanistan will not solve all of the country’s
problems, but the country’s problems can not be solved without
controlling drugs," Costa concluded.
Editor’s Note: Aunohita Mojumdar is an Indian freelance journalist
based in Kabul. She has reported on the South Asian region for the
past 19 years.