Taliban’s drug money
The Daily Telegraph (DT) cited from a British confidential report on the situation in Afghanistan. The growing opium will prolong the Taliban insurgency and therefor the deployment of troops. Although publically he is widely supported, doubts are growing whether president Karzai really is in control. DT reported that Karzai does not take up arms against the opium producers and even accepted the appointment of druglords on senior government positions. Since 2003, poppy fields in Afghanistan doubled in size to yield an annual 880 tons of heroin, 93% of global production (don’t forget to read a blog by UNODC’s Antonia Costa on how the estimates of heroin production come to life; see link). The proceeds are used to fuel the insurgency, according to the report.
Whether it is the FARC in Colombia, the drugrings that destabalize parts of Mexico or the Taliban in Afghanistan; it shows that proceeds of (drug) crime have a severe negative impact on stability of countries, corruption and the livability for citizens.
Taking on these drugsrings in Afghanistan should be one of the spearheads in the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Without unlimited funds for the Taliban, the fight will definitely have a different character. Reconstruction efforts without solving the economic dependence on poppies are deemed to fail. Alternative farming is a great idea, but this alone can not solve the problem and certainly not in the short term.
Currently, ISAF does not have a mandate to fight the illegal narcotics ‘economy’ in Afghanistan. ISAF soldiers do however provide support to crop eradication units that come under attack. Their indirect support to burn poppy fields does not make them any more popular than they already are. A lot of locals still depend on the poppy production for their family income.
Afghanistan’s Interior Minister announced a seizure of over 236.000 kilogram hashish. Since the report claims the ‘largest drug bust ever’ it implies a major single bust. ISAF supported the operation. The estimated wholsesale dollar amount involved is $ 400 mio (apparently $ 1,700 a kilo). Even arguing that the wholesale value is a bit overestimated, still a considerable financial injection to the Taliban that has been prevented. It seems that in Afghanisatan the cannabis production is as interesting a business as the poppy production is. In the end, both products provide a considerable financial boost to the Afghan druglords, and thus the Taliban.
On how to combat the opium and cannabis production in that region, the experts have different opinions. I will save that discussion for a future post…
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/about-unodc/costas-corner/afghanistan.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Security_Assistance_Force
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/press/releases/2008-06-12.html
