POPPY ERADICATION HAS FAILED

Re: "Progress in Afghanistan," (Opinion, Aug. 26).

Writer Robert B. Zoellick's arguments for the advancement of
Afghanistan's infrastructure, particularly the health and education
sectors, are to be commended. However, a vital component missing in
Zoellick's argument and in the country's development program has been
omitted; effective counter-narcotics policies.

With more than three million Afghans currently financially dependent
on poppy cultivation for survival, current U.S.-led policies aimed at
addressing Afghanistan's spiralling opium production have not only
proven unsuccessful but counter-productive. Forced poppy-crop
eradication, a strategy that has failed to reduce poppy cultivation,
while alienating local farmers and pushing them further into the arms
of the Taliban, lies at the heart of the country's problems.

There are alternatives to eradication that have yet to be explored.
The benefits of micro-finance, as Zoellick rightly points out, can
certainly not be ignored. The Senlis Council advocates the Poppy for
Medicine program whereby opium would be made into morphine locally,
and sold internationally. As the world's biggest opium producer,
Afghanistan has great potential to contribute to the international
pharmaceutical market. Counter-narcotics operations are vital if we
are to neutralize the insurgency and win back the hearts and minds of
the Afghan people.

Almas Bawar Zakhilwal

Canadian Director

Senlis Council

Paris