AFGHANISTAN LOSING WAR ON DRUGS, GENERAL SAYS

LONDON -- A Pakistani sewed opium into the beads of a tapestry. An
Afghan taped bags full of drugs to his body. A Chinese woman tucked
narcotics into hollowed heels.

Afghan Gen. Aminullah Amarkhil says he arrested them all, and that
has been the source of all his problems. The Afghan government,
however, accuses Amarkhil of corruption and wants him returned to his
homeland for questioning.

Until October, Amarkhil was a top customs official in the world's
largest opium producing nation, responsible for halting the flow of
drugs through Afghanistan's main airport. Now he is seeking asylum in
London, saying that his life is in danger from drug lords who
pressured the government to fire him amid corruption charges.

"If I was corrupt I wouldn't be here now," Amarkhil said as he sat
huddled by a space heater in a cramped one-room apartment in a West
London suburb. "If I accepted money the smugglers offered me, I would
be a very rich man today. One thing is clear: I am here because I
didn't deal with them."

Though Western backers of President Hamid Karzai's government have
pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into anti-drug programs,
corruption at every level of government has made it impossible to
make significant inroads, experts say. U.S. officials have said the
drug trade helps fund the Taliban-led insurgency.

Last year, Afghanistan had a record opium crop, producing enough to
make 670 tons of heroin, more than the world's addicts consume annually.

Amarkhil spent 18 months as the customs chief at Kabul International
Airport. Far from the modern world of X-ray machines and drug-trained
dogs, officials at the Kabul airport often worked without basics such
as electricity.

"I had no machines, no scanners, not even any dogs. All I had was my
experience, my spies and Allah," he said, pointing his finger to the sky.

Amarkhil contends he was so successful that he upset druglords tied
to corrupt government officials, who accused him of corruption.

Afghan Deputy Attorney General Mohammad Aloko says Amarkhil fled
rather than face scrutiny; Amarkhil says he was questioned and
released, but left amid fears for his life.

"He was scared because we had strong evidence of what he was
accused," Aloko said. "We are trying to bring him back to the country
with the help of Interpol."

Britain's Home Office and its Serious Organized Crime Agency would
neither confirm nor deny receiving any extradition requests in the case.

Amarkhil disputes the allegations, saying that the charges were
trumped up by officials in the pay of drug kingpins. The 44-year-old
father of seven earned a salary of $500 a month - and said he was
routinely offered bribes of $2,000 to $5,000 by traffickers to let
their cargo through.

A senior Western official in Kabul, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter,
described Amarkhil as "fairly aggressive" in carrying out his duties.
He said the alleged corruption was low-level, involving such things
as visas and parking fees.

Amarkhil said he can prove that high-placed officials allow drug
runners to operate brazenly. From a suitcase, the former customs
officer brought out videotapes describing dates and times of some of
his most successful arrests.

The videotapes show smugglers being taken into a room to be
questioned, as their stash of drugs was laid before them. Dozens of
nationalities were represented: Pakistani men with long beards, Thai
women, Chinese girls and Nigerian businessmen.

One showed an Afghan allegedly caught trying to conceal 14 pounds of
heroin. In another, a woman caught with 2 pounds of heroin threatened
Amarkhil with retaliation from "friends in high places." She was
freed in less than a month, Amarkhil said.

Corruption in Afghanistan's central institutions is hampering the
fight against drugs ahead of this year's harvest and poses an
increased risk to the 30,000-strong NATO force battling the
Taliban-led insurgency, Amarkhil said.