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Taliban funded by Afghan opium
Hundreds of millions of dollars a year from Afghanistan’s illicit drug trade end up in the pockets of Islamic militant groups like the Taliban and al Qaida, the head of the U.N. drug-fighting body said today.
Comes as a surprise, doesn't it? Who'da ever thunkit?
U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa also said there were no signs of the country’s rampant opium output abating this year, meaning Afghanistan was in grave danger of becoming a narco-state. "We cannot call it a narco-state now, but Afghanistan is obviously at a critical juncture. It could go either way," he said. "The next 18 to 24 months are going to be critical," he added, a day after an international conference on fighting drugs in Afghanistan took place in Kabul.

The conference set five action plans, including strengthening law enforcement, developing alternative livelihoods and setting up a proper criminal justice system. Budgets for the proposals will go to an aid-pledging conference planned for late March or April in Germany. "With these five action plans, we can now establish a budget of what is needed so we can confront donors," Costa told reporters. He declined to say how much money was needed.

UNODC estimates Afghan opium production last year at 3,600 tons, a 6 percent rise over the previous year. More worrying, Costa said, was that surveys of farmers showed a further increase of opium -- from which heroin is derived -- was likely this year. Costa said he had no figures, but estimated that at least several hundred million dollars of Afghanistan’s estimated opium output of $2.3 billion ends up in the hands of groups like the Taliban and al Qaida. The militants are believed to control many of the smuggling routes across Afghanistan’s rugged eastern frontier into Pakistan, making collection relatively easy. That threatens Karzai’s efforts to establish a viable economy in the war-shattered country.

Costa said the political effort of the government was good, "but the more we allow the narco-economy to become ingrained in the behavior of the people ... the greater the risk the country will go the wrong way." Karzai has banned opium cultivation, but his government’s weakness in the provinces and the violence and insecurity caused by resurgent Taliban guerrillas and rival pro-government commanders have helped the trade flourish. Costa repeated a call for a NATO-led force and U.S.-led coalition forces in Afghanistan to help cut off trafficking and shipments of opium and heroin. "Fighting drug trafficking equals fighting terrorism," he said.
Posted by: Dan Darling 2004-02-11
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=26002