NATO TO COMBAT DRUG TRADE

Stopping Traffickers Will Hurt Taliban

KABUL -- The product is hidden in transport trucks, hauled on the back
of donkeys and finally spirited through villages that straddle
Afghanistan's northern border.

Being part of the world's largest heroin industry certainly has its
benefits but the work, says one Afghan drug smuggler, is no walk in
the park.

To move narcotics from Afghanistan's Pashtun belt -- where Canadian
troops operate -- to Tajikistan, smugglers risk arrest by the police,
theft at the hands of other criminals, or worse, says the Kabul-based
courier, who asked not to be named.

"First, you sign your death certificate, then you start working," the
smuggler said in a recent interview, as he nervously chain smoked.

"People are hungry. They will kill you if they know you carry a big
amount of money."

Such traffickers may soon have another danger to worry about, too. A
new NATO policy would see troops from Canada and other countries play
a bigger role in combating Afghanistan's massive heroin trade,
effectively ending the alliance's standoff approach to the issue.

The idea is that NATO soldiers would go after narcotics operations
when there is some indication they are tied to the insurgency.

A graphic illustration of that link came earlier this week in the
south of Kandahar province. U.S. and Afghan troops were searching an
area known for its insurgent activity when they stumbled on a drug
factory and almost 40 tonnes of hashish.

Last month, American police charged a Kandahar-based man with
conspiracy to traffic drugs to support terrorism, alleging that he had
financed the Taliban.

"The government of Afghanistan has been saying for the last two years
that NATO has to be involved in (drug) operations on the ground," said
Zalmai Aszali, a spokesperson for Afghanistan's Ministry of
Counter-narcotics.

"The bullet coming out of the barrel of the AK-47 of the insurgents is
being financed by drug traffickers."

Much has been made lately of the reduced poppy harvest this year, but
Afghanistan still produces more than 90 per cent of the world's
heroin, and NATO estimates that $50 million to $200 million of the
proceeds flow to the insurgents annually.

Millions more feed the corruption that eats away at the weak Afghan
government.

Although the Americans and British are independently involved in the
drug war, the alliance as a whole has shied away from it, with members
at odds over thorny issues like poppy eradication.

But they agreed last month to begin more aggressively combating drug
smugglers and factories -- although not farmers -- if a link to the
insurgency is shown.

Aszali said the government would like Canadian and other international
troops to attack the fast-moving drug convoys, which often use
late-model SUVs that can outrun the police.

Protection for the anti-narcotics police as they crack down on heroin
operations would also be appreciated, since more than 70 of them have
died in clashes with the heavily armed cartels, he said. Also,
satellite and other technology used by NATO could aid in uncovering
the secret routes smugglers use to get drugs out of Afghanistan and
pre-cursor chemicals in, said the official.

Authorities believe that convoys smuggle out huge quantities of heroin
- -- several metric tonnes at a time, said Christina Oguz, head of the
UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Afghanistan. She said she welcomes
NATO involvement in tackling the problem.

"It's not possible to draw a watertight line between narcotics and the
insurgents. Sometimes, they are the same people," she said in an
interview. "You can't say 'First, we take the insurgents, then we take
the narcotics.' "

Canada, for one, is concerned about the strong link between the two
and the insurgent violence that results, said Jamie Christoff, a
spokesperson for the Canadian government in Kandahar.

It has already committed to spend $27 million on "alternative
livelihoods" for farmers and is contributing $30 million to the UN
drugs office in Afghanistan.

But how the new NATO agreement will affect troops on the ground is
still being hammered out, Canadian and alliance officials say.

Under the previous rules, NATO forces could attack civilians involved
in the heroin industry to aid "force protection," in other words if
the troops were threatened directly by the drug gangs, said Brig.-Gen.
Richard Blanchette, a spokesperson for the International Security
Assistance Force, the alliance's Afghan mission.

Under the new rules, they can get involved based on a less-definitive
connection between heroin gangs and insurgents, he said.

The Kabul smuggler said he believes NATO's involvement could put a
serious dent in the trade.

He is not a high-volume operator himself, but moves a few kilograms of
heroin at a time from the capital to the Tajikistan border, clearing
about $1,500 in a good month, still more than three times the average
Afghan annual income.

The UN says about 20 per cent of Afghanistan's heroin is smuggled out
of the north and into the Central Asian republics or even China, while
the rest flows south into Pakistan or Iran.