Suggestions for Afghanistan regarding corruption, eradication, and income-generating programmes are virtually meaningless in Taleban-controlled provinces unless security is achieved first, writes JAMES EMERY
Mr Antonia Maria Costa, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), recently set as his organisation's primary goal the reduction of opium cultivation in Afghanistan, which he said has "reached historical levels unheard of in the past 150 years".
Successfully eradicating trafficking in narcotics will eliminate the Taleban's primary source of income and undermine their ability to wage a protracted insurgency. The single most important issue to eradicating opium is security. In order to decisively defeat the Taleban within a reasonable period of time, there needs to be a considerable increase in the International Security Assistance Force. Otherwise, it is just going to be a stalemate, and in this case, the Taleban wins the ties.
About 78% of Afghanistan's opium cultivation takes place in five Taleban-infested provinces that lack security and governance. Suggestions regarding corruption, eradication, and income-generating programmes are useful in secure areas, but virtually meaningless in Taleban-controlled provinces unless residents and officials can go about their lives in relative safety.
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| Life is harsh in rural Afghanistan. |
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| Tobacco smoking is popular among Afghan men. |
Many Afghans feel that corruption is a bigger threat than the Taleban because it undermines the credibility and authority of the Karzai government. "Unless we resolve the narcotics problem, it can undo many of our achievements," said Ashraf Haidari, political counsellor at the Embassy of Afghanistan in Washington, DC, "especially (in terms) of governance and the rule of law. Narcotics traders are corrupting everyone that is not paid well; the police primarily, but also the judicial system, right up to institutions that constitute the face of the government."
The ranks of police and government officials are littered with unsavoury warlords and undesirables, some of whom paid bribes to gain their appointments, much to the dismay of Afghans who had hoped to be rid of them.
"The Afghan population believes that large traffickers and complicit government officials are untouchable," said Fahime Mohammad, an Afghan businessman. "The top criminals, along with everyone involved in their operations, should be imprisoned, regardless of family ties or political alliances."
The training of Afghan police officers by the United States Drug Enforcement Administration and other international agencies is paying dividends in the war against drug traffickers. However, a good deal more effort is needed, including substantial pay raises and additional training for all police officers, with added incentives for officers assigned to narcotics units.
It is also important that the Afghan army is sufficiently trained and paid, to increase their retention and effectiveness. Establishing a banking system that provides low cost loans to farmers is important to eradicating opium poppy. These loans would be available to farmers who agree not to grow opium or cannabis.
Since traditional banking and financing methods are unavailable, Afghan farmers rely on the salaam system for credit. The amount of money advanced is generally half the current market value of the crop that is being offered as payment.
A recent UNODC survey of villages growing opium showed that about one-third of Afghan farmers received cash advances on their crop, enabling wealthy drug lords, who ignore the Qur'an's ban on riba, to charge interest that effectively amounts to 100% of the loan.
If farmers are unable to deliver the crop for any reason, they may have to sell their land to cover the debt.
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| An elderly Afghan with the Qur'an. |
"Microlending is a very powerful instrument promoting development," said Mr Costa of the UNODC. "And in the case of Afghanistan, it will help the farmers break the bonds of the traffickers."
Low-cost loans and viable alternative crops would significantly improve the plight of the poor. Sustainable income generating programmes, including the construction of roads, irrigation systems, clinics, schools, and other public works projects, would provide Afghans with jobs, instead of leaving them vulnerable to Taleban recruiters.
"These programmes would address another need," said Fahime Mohammad, an Afghan businessman. "A sense of national identity and the belief that the government in Kabul is the benefactor of the Afghan people, not the Taleban or tribal militias."
Providing governors and warlords with cash payments and other incentives for eradicating opium and overseeing alternative crop programmes are also good ideas, but such programme should include bonuses for the destruction of heroin laboratories as well, and the seizure of drugs and precursor chemicals transiting their regions.
Afghanistan and other states stricken by drugs can strike back at traffickers by arresting and extraditing their top leaders to the United States or other countries where the drug kingpin's power and influence are negated. Criminals around the world fear extradition, and it's an essential tool in breaking up drug networks and criminal organisations.
Narcotics trafficking and the insurgency feed off of each other. It is impossible to address or defeat one, without containing the other. It would be beneficial if the military and police, along with governmental and nongovernmental agencies, worked together within a flexible grid to address the respective needs at provincial and district levels.
There is no set formula for success. Each province must be analysed individually to assess security issues and humanitarian concerns.
Realistically, it is going to take many years to change Afghanistan's opium-based economy. Some of the concerns are being addressed, but again, the key to everything is security. Al-Qaeda is an annoyance, but it's the Taleban who are the real threat to Afghanistan and the region.
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