Source:
The Globe and MailKANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Foreign troops have undermined the Afghan government's poppy-eradication campaign in Kandahar, the governor says, and the lack of support has added to the risks of the operation.
At least 13 police have been killed and one reported missing during poppy eradication so far this month, and the task has been more difficult, Governor Asadullah Khalid said, because his NATO allies refuse to help and, in some cases, appear to be blocking the effort. ...
The foreign troops have been similarly unhelpful in Panjwai district, he said, where NATO soldiers warned his officers that no assistance would be available if they got into trouble. In Zhari district, he said, NATO troops stopped his teams from working. In Maywand, he said, tribal elders were told that the foreign troops are not against opium cultivation.
"They said, 'We don't want to make enemies for ourselves,' " Mr. Khalid said. "It's very bad for eradication when you're telling the elders, we are not against your poppy. It means we have different policies."
Read more:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080421.AFGHANSIDE21/TPStory/TPInternational/Asia/
http://www.standard-freeholder.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=995923The governor of Kandahar province says foreign troops have undermined the Afghan government's poppy-eradication campaign in the region and made the operation riskier through their lack of support. Asadullah Khalid tells the Globe and Mail that some NATO allies, including Canada, have failed to help officers dedicated to eliminating poppies, adding that some troops have even gone so far as to actively block the effort. ...
Khalid is especially upset about a firefight on the morning of April 6 that killed nine officers in the district of Maywand, west of Kandahar city. He says his office notified the Canadian military three weeks ahead of time that his teams would be visiting certain locations in Maywand to destroy the opium fields. But on the appointed day, he says NATO troops stationed nearby failed to help his men during an hour-long battle against Taliban fighters. "They didn't help us, even though they were very close," Khalid said. "We gave them all the plans and programs beforehand. They were informed, and they promised us they will help us if something happens to our police."
http://www.chathamthisweek.com/Opinion/394513.htmlCanada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier is facing some criticism after he publicly called for changes in the office of the governor of Kandahar. He ended his visit to the war-torn country on April 14 by effectively calling for the removal of the governor, Asadullah Khalid, linking him to the rampant corruption that plagues the impoverished region.
As one journalist suggested, it was the diplomatic equivalent of telling a parent how to raise his child, and Bernier was quickly forced to issue a “clarification” after the Afghan government expressed concern about foreign interference in its internal affairs.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080413/governor_bernier_080414/20080414?hub=PoliticsAn ethnic Pashtun, the dominant group in Kandahar province, Khalid fought with the Northern Alliance against the Taliban. Karzai first named Khalid governor of Ghazni province in 2002 before transferring him to Kandahar in 2005.
Khalid survived an apparent assassination attempt early this year when a bomb detonated near his motorcade. Other blasts targeted him in May 2007 and in June 2006.
"It is widely believed that Asadullah Khalid gained his position as a result of his excellent relationship with U.S. authorities in Afghanistan," the Senlis Council said in a 2006 report. "Tough on the Pakistan-Taliban connection, Khalid has become increasingly unpopular in Kandahar due to his poppy eradication campaigns."
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSISL20154620080421Helmand, where mostly British and Afghan troops are fighting the Taliban insurgency, is a largely desert province cut in two by a strip of lush fertile land along the Helmand River that produces almost half the world's opium.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/columnists/columnists.html?in_article_id=561183&in_page_id=1772&in_author_id=464The vast opium industry, instead of shrinking, expands each year.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article3785248.eceThe countryside is pure Monet, with splashes of pink, purple and red as you walk along the rows and rows of poppies ready for harvesting for the opium warlords.
http://www.nst.com.my/Current_News/NST/Tuesday/National/2220190/Article/index_html"The UNODC estimates that 193,000ha was under opium cultivation last year and 8,200 tonnes of opium, or 93 per cent of the world's production, came from there."
http://www.nugget.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=995991To top it off, the United Nations has announced that opium poppy cultivation in Afghanistan has soared. There was a 59 per cent increase in areas under opium cultivation in 2006. Production of opium is estimated to have increased by 49 per cent in relation to 2005. Yet in a bitter irony, the foreign military presence has served to restore opium as the country's largest cash crop rather than eradicate the drug trade. Opium production has increased 33 fold from 185 tons in 2001 under the Taliban to 6,100 tons in 2006. Cultivated areas have increased 21 fold since the 2001 occupation began.
http://www.rightsidenews.com/20080414718/global-terrorism/afghanistan-s-opim.htmlAlthough Brigadier Andrew MacKay did not mention the Helmand opium industry, it can be assumed that part of the progress (he ASSERTED) is the the allowance of the large poppy fields all over the country by NATO.
http://in.reuters.com/article/southAsiaNews/idINIndia-33130420080420Scarred by decades of turmoil and grief, 66 percent of Afghans suffer from depression or some form of mental disorder, and an increasing number are turning to illegal drugs, a top health official said. Afghan deputy health minister for technical affairs Faizullah Kakar said mental illness and drug abuse were the most urgent health problems that the country now needs to tackle. ...
"Depressed people like to take drugs and they get more depressed, it's a vicious cycle, this is what we see in Afghanistan. Drugs have mixed up with depression and we have an expansion of the number of people who are at risk."
Afghanistan is the world's number one producer of opium, from which heroin is derived. It had an estimated 920,000 drug addicts a few years ago. "This may be greater now," Kakar said.
http://southasia.oneworld.net/article/view/159907/1/Afghanistan would have great potential to ensure food security for its estimated 26.6 million people if donors invested in agricultural infrastructure and/or if the country's over 190,000 hectares of poppy were converted to wheat production, a senior official of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said.
"Afghanistan has a lot of potential to easily become food-secure, even food self-sufficient, owing to its rich soil and plenty of rivers," Tekeste Ghebray Tekie, said the FAO country representative, in Kabul. ...
Up to 70% of Afghans - about 18 million people - suffer from acute food insecurity due to poverty, drought and years of conflict, according to FAO and other aid agencies. Meanwhile, over two and half million already vulnerable Afghans have been pushed into "high risk" food-insecurity due to a dramatic increase in staple food prices, particularly wheat flour, UN agencies reported. ...
However, in the post-Taliban rebuilding and development drive agriculture has received only modest donor funding, experts say. Though the main source of livelihood for about 70% of the population, agriculture has received only about US$ 300 million out of the $15 billion in international aid money spent in Afghanistan over the past six years, Oxfam International reported.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
