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The View from Afghanistan

Doing More to Stop the Drug Trade

The international community is doing a lot to help Afghanistan. But when it comes to stopping the heroin trade, even more needs to be done. Every time a European takes drugs, it destroys another Afghan child's life, writes Afganistan's Deputy Minister of the Interior Mohammad Daud Daud.

We look across a tree-covered plane at the rugged, steep and dusty mountains ringing Kabul. I say we, because three floors above my office at the Afghan Ministry of Interior, German experts help train our domestic police force. Our windows share the majestic view of the mountains just as our countries share the effects of the malicious heroin trade. In today's world, a threat to one is a threat to all.

Beyond the sharp peaks, criminals and terrorists carpet Afghanistan's valleys with poppies. After blooming, poor farmers harvest the sap, which is refined into opium, heroin's key ingredient. Smugglers then move their drugs using barefoot children bearing rucksacks, poor widows in burkas, donkey caravans, and even hang-gliders. After crossing Central Asia, or the Middle East, the illicit heroin craved by Europe's addicts finally reaches cities like Hamburg, Frankfurt, Berlin, Amsterdam, London, Paris, Rome, Athens and Madrid -- where the seedy dark alleyways and shooting galleries are filled with zombies stumbling around looking for their next fix. Every time one of these junkies injects, snorts or smokes, it puts a gun to the head of the future of yet another Afghan child.

An issue which should concern Europeans is that the purity level of Afghan heroin is rising. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. From 1999 to 2004, Colombian heroin purity levels rose to well above 90 percent. This led to a record number of overdose deaths among teenage Americans. The purity of a single dose was in many cases all it took to create addiction, and in some cases it killed instantly. Almost all Colombian heroin is sold to addicts in the United States. Likewise, almost all Afghan heroin is destined for the European market.

According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) director Antonio Maria Costa, the purity level for Afghan heroin has doubled to 44 percent. This should send shockwaves across the health ministries of the European Union. Just as it became an epidemic in the United States, if left unchecked, heroin overdoses will become a greater epidemic in Europe. If Europe does not heed the harbinger of the American heroin addiction problem, they are doomed to repeat it on a much larger scale.

Clearly, Europe's addiction to Afghan heroin places significant shared responsibility on European nations not only to contribute to international security forces in Afghanistan, but also to help fund "alternative livelihood" programs so poppy farmers can grow other crops.

Earlier this year at a UNODC conference in Vienna, I urged the international community to join us in killing poppies before they bloom. This is no easy task; as we all know randomly throwing Euros at drug eradication programs does not necessarily produce the intended results. Opium production rose by 64 percent and generated around €2.8 billion per year, or 60 percent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product according to the UNODC's 2004 Afghanistan Opium Survey. Much of this illicit income is used to finance international terrorism as well as the terrorists who are attacking Afghanistan's budding democracy.

Stopping it requires long-term commitment and strategy, with major financial resources, equipment, technology, manpower and most importantly, international cooperation. Thankfully the world has begun to respond, especially Germany. A mighty ally in this fight, it has helped train our border police, as well as the quick reaction forces along the borders. In overall humanitarian aid, Germany has contributed hundreds of millions of euros helping Afghanistan begin to reconstruct after three decades of war. Last year, Germany pledged several hundred million more euros through 2008.

German assistance also strengthens Afghanistan's long term stability. Germany is helping our upcoming parliamentary election run smoothly. Women's rights have also improved thanks to German-led education, health care, and employment programs. Longer term German-sponsored projects include: allowing student exchanges, the return of refugees from Pakistan and Iran, and a better water supply in Kabul.

Most notably, 2,000 courageous German soldiers are deployed in NATO's multinational International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) -- the largest national contingent in the 7,000 strong-security force. German soldiers are stationed in Kunduz, Faizabad, Takhar and Kabul leading reconstruction efforts.

Others are also helping, including the British, who lead the coalition's effort to help us create a cohesive drug policy. As a result, the German-trained police and other Afghan military forces, dismantle clandestine heroin processing laboratories and interdict smugglers. Anyone caught during these operations will stand trial thanks to Italian assistance standing up a new judicial system. New courts, judges and methods of collecting evidence, ultimately mean successful prosecution of those involved in the drug trade.

But all this is not nearly enough when compared with the billions generated from illicit narcotics trafficking. The discrepancy is the demarcation line between success and failure for our entire anti-narcotics effort and, indeed, our democracy. For this reason we cannot entertain any option other than directly combating the drug trade. Farmers who decide to grow poppies in Afghanistan face a blunt reality: at some point we will destroy your crops and deny you the money you would have earned from this illicit trade.

We have increasingly embraced this approach since our first democratic election last year. Just after his inauguration in December, Afghan President Hamid Karzai for the first time summoned the local tribal, government and religious leaders to a loya jirga on narcotics, it was called the National Conference on Counter Narcotics. President Karzai made combating the scourge of narcotics one of his highest priorities and said narcotics not only ruin the lives of Afghanistan's children, but also undermine the economy, bring shame to the honorable image of Afghanistan and invite foreign interference in Afghan affairs.

Shortly thereafter, the National Council of Ulema, a group of Afghanistan's most respected Muslim scholars, issued a fatwa, or religious declaration, against the illicit drug trade. With dramatic impact village elders and local religious leaders are beginning to enforce the fatwa. They understand the social problems inherent in narcotics trafficking. They understand most Afghans are tired of violence, lawlessness and drugs.

In addition to this aggressive enforcement, our government also dissuades farmers from growing poppies. We are establishing new factories, fruit farms, spice farms and power stations. As President Karzai said, "We do not want our farmers to be poor." While destroying their poppy fields, we must provide them with alternative crops - a legal and decent way to make a living.

Our efforts are working. This year, reports from the provinces show land typically used for poppies was planted with other crops. Across Afghanistan, verification teams assisted by aerial photography and satellite imagery, checked these reports. The UN has just gone on record saying cultivation is down 21 percent.

But we need more help. Further success means providing even more viable and legitimate incomes to poor farmers -- as well as assuring them that if they do not choose this route -- their illicit crops will be destroyed.

We have stepped up the fight and Germany must join us. In raid after raid, we seize precursor chemicals used to process opium into heroin. In raid after raid, stinking mud hovels reveal that many of these precursor chemicals are made in European chemical plants, including Germany. Afghan hands are not only stained with opium tar, but also European chemicals. As a result, the hands of wealthy European chemical company executives are also stained with the blood of Afghan children and the addicted that flood the streets of Europe, committing crimes to support their habit. I ask, when will it stop?

Germany can lead the way in Europe by tightening export regulations on chemicals used as precursors for illicit narcotics production. Initiating such regulation within the European Union, would help all law enforcement agencies across the world track and detect illicit shipments of precursors. By providing the authorities in the countries where these chemicals are being shipped at least a one month notification on the amount and type of chemicals, it should provide enough time to discern whether the chemicals are being shipped for a legitimate purpose. The impact of such regulation could be invaluable in slowing and shutting down the trafficking of precursor chemicals for illicit purposes.

What we seek is a future where Afghan hands are soiled by the earth of an honest harvest. A future untied to international terrorists striking Madrid, London, Bali, New York or some day God forbid, Berlin. We pray for the day when Afghan children learn about violence from history books rather than by walking down the street. Only if we work together will this future blossom into reality.

The writer, Afghanistan's Deputy Minister of Interior for Counter Narcotics, is responsible for Afghanistan's law enforcement efforts to eradicate and interdict illicit narcotics.