OUR DEADLY EXPORT

A solution to the problem of opium trafficking from Afghanistan is as
far away as it ever was

Nushin Arbabzadah guardian.co.uk, Monday October 20 2008 16.30
BST

"It's because of you people that our children are dying of heroin
addiction," said my boss years ago when I worked at a German TV
station. He had just found out that I was Afghan. I stood my ground
but I never forgot his words.

Recently, President Karzai has been hearing similar
views.

That's why when he tours the west, he often apologises on behalf of
his people: sorry for the poppies!

Then back home he tells Afghans that drugs have tarnished their
reputation abroad.

For the majority of Afghan poppy farmers, reputation is the least of
their worries.

One of them summed up the reason: "Do you think they give us visas to
go abroad anyway?" Their concerns is much more acute. If you click on
this link at about three minutes into the footage you see poppy
eradication in action in Helmand province.

A horrified boy, crying and pointing at noisy tractors that are mowing
down the poppies, is saying, "They are destroying our poppies.

How are we going to eat with no money?" This is what Afghans call
zolom, injustice and oppression of biblical proportions, as embodied
in the qur'anic stories of the pharaohs.

The Taliban understood this, exploited the situation and came to the
farmers' rescue.

Click here and four and a half minutes into the footage you'll hear
the sound of Taliban machine guns attacking an eradication team in
Urozgan. Read this article to understand that the Taliban is using
suicide bombers to attack government eradication campaigns.

This is the Afghan side of the story. The government is protecting
serious drug smugglers, while small farmers are forced to seek Taliban
protection. Little wonder, than, that Afghans compare their government
to a bowl of thin soup, it's so watery and lacking in substance.

Now let's look at the story outside of Afghanistan. I learned about
this aspect between early 2005 and end of 2007 when poppies entered my
professional life. As part of my job I'd sift through hundreds of
local and international reports on the Afghan drugs trade and compile
a monthly summary.

The first time I saw the pile of reports, my trainer reassured me:
"You'll get a feel for it. Look out for new trends, official policy
announcements and arrests." Sounds exciting, right? But I'm afraid I
have to disappoint you. There were very few arrests, most of them
along the Tajik border where petty smugglers were either caught or
injured in shoot-outs. There was clearly not much money involved
because on the way back from Tajikistan, solitary smugglers often
tried to steal some cows to make up their profits.

As to foreign countries' policies, such was their repetitive nature
that I soon had them memorised.

You could wake me up from deep sleep at three in the morning and ask:
What's Russia's stance on Afghan drugs? And I'd shoot back: "Angry at
Nato's failure to control the situation and a desire for greater
involvement. And they keep talking about the need for a security belt
to cut off southern Russia from Afghan drug-trafficking routes.

They plan to open an office in Kabul and they offer training to Afghan
officials." (More recently, 18 Afghan officials expected for training
in Russia didn't show up, much to Russian annoyance.

It seems the Afghan side has some trust issues.)

And the Iranians? Also angry with Nato for the same
reason.

They say they are losing soldiers in shoot-outs with drug traffickers.
They have threatened to build a wall along the Afghan border.

There are reports that underage Afghan drug smugglers are kept
imprisoned in Iran until they turn 18 when they can be hanged.

Iranian officials denied the reports.

The US? Keep suggesting aerial spraying.

In one village the population suspected secret overnight spraying when
they woke up to find mysterious diseases had affected their crop and
livestock. Kabul promised an investigation but nothing happened.

The UK? Against spraying but otherwise dithering, with no clear plan.
Incidentally, the Taliban is equally divided when it comes to drugs
policy. Some Taliban believe that rolling a joint after a good day of
fighting is fine since Islam only bans alcohol explicitly but not
cannabis. Others believe that the ban includes alcohol and all drugs.
There has been some serious theological hairsplitting on this in
Pakistan's Waziristan.

In view of this chaotic situation, it's not surprising that when it
comes to the relationship between the drugs trade and the west, the
Afghan rumor bazaar is bustling.

Let me introduce you to one of the more outlandish theories making
rounds and gaining ground.

The theory is that the foreign forces stationed in Afghanistan are
themselves involved in drug smuggling.

What kind of feverish mind could have come up with this surreal story,
you are asking?

The answer is simple: Hollywood. The guilty party seems to have been
the recent Ridley Scott movie American Gangster, which has fuelled
people's imagination in Afghanistan about the way the west gets its
drugs.

The theory is that the film is not fictional but draws inspiration
from what is happening in Afghanistan right now. In other words, that
US army planes leave Afghanistan carrying coffins empty of bodies but
filled with drugs. The champions of this conspiracy theory say this
explains why poppy production has increased in exactly the same
provinces where foreign troops are stationed.

The rumour has now taken on pan-Asian
proportions. Look at what happened when Ali Larijani, Iran's
parliamentary speaker, recently went to Geneva. He told Andres
Johnson, the secretary general of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, "The
majority of Afghan drugs are transported to the west via three
airports that are under Nato control." The report was given the title:
"Revealed: The role of Nato airbases in transporting Afghan drugs to
Europe". Iranian websites endlessly reproduced it.

Against this background of mistrust, it's not surprising that Nato's
recent announcement that its troops are to directly target the drugs
business fell flat. Zalmai Afzali, the spokesperson for the Afghan
counter-narcotics ministry, told a local newspaper: "We are not
overtly optimistic because in the past too Nato made many promises
that never materialised." Hajji Hanif Hanifi, an MP from Uruzgan
province, said: "I don't think they'll succeed because in the last
seven years, despite huge amounts of money and the use of the police
force, the government failed to stop drug smuggling.

So they are not going to succeed in the future either."

The Afghan paper Hasht-e Sobh had a different angle.

An editorial headlined "Yet another strategic change" said, "The main
facilitators, the biggest drug smugglers, do not reside in
Afghanistan. Hence, it's not going to be easy to catch or arrest
them." The paper drew comparison to the failed search for Osama bin
Laden and concluded with the words, "We have no reason to be
optimistic."

With no clear and coherent drug policy between the Afghan government,
the neighbouring countries and the wider international community, few
Afghans on the ground believe that the drugs business can be curbed.