Afghanistan drug trade still proving a tough nut to crack

By David Cronin and Martin Banks

Date: 20/11/03

EU EFFORTS to stop Afghanistan growing the opium used in heroin have had a "limited impact so far", Chris Patten has admitted.

The external relations commissioner said the "prevailing insecurity" in the central Asian state and inability of the Afghan Transition Authority (ATA) to exert control over the country were the main reasons why it has proven so difficult to curb the cultivation of opium-poppy.

The European Commission has agreed to provide financial backing for priorities identified in the Afghan National Drug Control Strategy devised by the ATA. Some €140 million is due to be spent on rural development in 2002-3, while a further €70 million has been allocated to law enforcement, including providing equipment for, and paying the salaries of, the embryonic national police force.

Replying to a Parliamentary question by Greek centre-right MEP Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou, Patten voiced fears there could be a bumper opium-poppy harvest this year. This coincides with increasing farm prices for raw opium - according to some estimates, more than €250 per kilogramme - making the business "extremely profitable" for farmers, Patten explained.

The involvement of regional warlords and the al-Qaeda terrorist network in the drugs trade is considered a "major risk to the socio-economic and reconstruction process in Afghanistan", added the British commissioner.

Because rural poverty leaves farmers with few alternatives to the opium-poppy at the moment, the Commission has decided to support irrigation and horticulture schemes in the hope that Afghanistan's once-viable fruit and nut sectors can be redeveloped.

However, Patten acknowledged that halting poppy production can be a lengthy process. "In Pakistan and Thailand, for example, it took 15 years to achieve satisfactory results," he commented.

"The growing demand for opium in neighbouring countries [to Afghanistan], which have weak governments, makes eradication in Afghanistan more difficult."

Meanwhile, a new UN study has warned that soaring drug production in Afghanistan is helping to fuel a crime wave in EU member states.

The annual report of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reveals that, so far this year, drug cultivation in Afghanistan has generated l2.3 billion - equivalent to half of the country's legitimate gross domestic product - and 75% of heroin imported into the EU now originates there.

The UNODC states that while much of Afghanistan's drug-related proceeds go towards propping up terrorist organizations and drugs warlords, it is helping to generate crime and drug addiction in member states.

German centre-right MEP Armin Laschet said the opium fields in Afghanistan presented a "direct and imminent" threat to the EU.

Laschet, the Parliament's rapporteur on relations between the Union and UN, added: "We are calling on the EU to take this issue more seriously. Many of the drugs being cultivated are finding their way into youth clubs and schools in Europe and urgent action is needed.

"The EU provides more than l2 billion in aid to Afghanistan and we have to give a clear political signal that this situation cannot be allowed to continue."

Laschet's comments were echoed by UN Deputy Secretary-General, Antonio Maria Costa, who heads the UNODC.

He said Afghanistan needed a "good dose" of law enforcement.

European External Action Service: Afghanistan http://eeas.europa.eu/afghanistan/index_en.htm

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