Afghanistan’s opium dilemma
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Afghanistan, the opium harvest is expected that annual rivals in the last record year for the performance and wrote more than 8000 tonnes or more than 90 per cent of world production, according to a United Nations study released in February, Most will be developed with the Taliban in high places. Afghanistan has increased in the year 8243 tons of 2007, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in its evaluation Winter investigation. His forecast for 2008 suggests a slowdown in production, but strong increases in the past two years in the war-torn country. It takes about 10 kilograms of opium, one kilogram of heroin. However, given the improvement in the quality and content higher morphine, Afghan opium, which was rebuilt at a seven-a report in the past three years. During the year 2007, 58.4 percent of Afghan opium (8243 tons, 156 tons consumed locally and less than 105 tons confiscated), morphine or heroin refined, the establishment of 666 tonnes export. Five Pushtun provinces of Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Nimroz and Farah, the strongholds of the Taliban, were for 77.7 per cent of opium cultivation in Afghanistan during the past year. The only Helmand province produces 53 percent of the harvest of the whole nation. Culture of opium Helmand is projected to stabilize this year, after one year, 48 percent in 2007 and a 162 per cent increase in 2006, after the Taliban control of the region. In the case of NATO forces against Taliban rebels in southern Afghanistan, many fled the provinces of Nimroz and Farah, where it grouped. The association of poppy cultivation in these two provinces has increased 121 percent during the year 2007, after the Taliban, she began as sanctuaries. Their revenues are rising again in 2008, particularly in the Khash Rod province of Nimroz circle. “It is quite obvious the Taliban are in the drug trade, particularly in the southern provinces,” said Dr Thomas Pietschmann, research and analysis section of the UNODC in Vienna , Austria. “We also have information that farmers have said that opium by the Taliban to grow,” he added. The Taliban control all aspects of the drug, culture until the processing and distribution. Many of these taxes are paid and medicines, the Taliban sell. They make money by accepting protection for the fields of opium, heroin, laboratories, other emissions, drug trafficking and human traffickers. The average price in the wholesale of 2007 for a kilo (2.2 pounds) of Afghan heroin has $ 4500 in Central Asia, Pakistan, $ 3206 and $ 3000 in Iran. One kilogram of opium was $ 325, $ 175 and $ 600 respectively in these areas. Afghan poppy cultivation is a tale of two regions, drugs, terrorism, terrorists’ provinces controlled by the Taliban, and the rest of the country is that most of stability and respond positively to the efforts for the reconstruction and eradication. This trend is expected to continue in 2008. If the five provinces of the problem, because it believed that the other 29 provinces of Afghanistan had a collective decline and 32.4 percent of poppy cultivation of opium in recent years. Twelve provinces are now free opium, and eight others are in the vicinity, for the elimination of all its opium. The anti-opium programs funded by Western governments, and takes charge of reconstruction and humanitarian projects work and should continue. The explosion of poppy cultivation, the Taliban in the provinces. If Western countries want to be taken seriously for the elimination of opium this power, the distribution of the forces and resources required to stabilize and secure provinces. Opium poppy cultivation is much more often, in areas where there is no guarantee that by the fact that 85% of villages in the south of Afghanistan, opium grow, compared to only 1% in the central region of the country. “The vast majority of the southern part of Afghanistan is closed for United Nations operations,” said Hakan Demirbuken, UNODC has expired polls opium in Afghanistan for several years. “Man United Nations does are allowed only in the inner cities, “he added.” They can not go to the villages. It is very dangerous. ” The lack of security, most non-governmental organisations south of stopping their operations, or they only work in major cities. The Taliban have been killed and aid personnel working in the relief agencies, who try to travel to rural villages. “There is clearly a link between instability and opium cultivation,” said Jen-Luc Lemahieu, UNODC, the capital of Central Europe, West Asia and Asia. “The nexus between terrorism and opium cultivation is one of agricultural taxes, as well as protection of the money in areas where the Taliban would be a dominant factor.” Opium poppy cultivation and heroin refineries also supported the strengthening of relations with the Afghan Taliban of the population, so that many of them are in drug trafficking. NATO troops in Afghanistan, the so-called “International Security Assistance Force, as a general rule, any participation in the eradication of opium. The battle against the Taliban is a full-time job, and they are concerned that the destruction of poppy fields away from the population, so it is much more difficult to gain the necessary cooperation for the eradication of the insurgency. The U.S. wants to implement the eradication of the antenna, which are characterized by fields of poppies syringes, chemicals. It is one of the most effective methods for the destruction of opium, the Afghan government, but he will not admit it, for fear that the drift of the air of chemicals on humans and animals livestock and contaminate water supplies. It would also allow farmers to fight, unless other sources of income are in place, are unlikely to occur, while the Taliban control. If opium plants eradicated, economic despair forcing many farmers to the principal employer in the region, the Taliban. Cannabis cultivation is to be expected that this year also, once again, that Afghanistan is one of the world’s leading providers of hashish. The production of cannabis in the year 2007, 70000 hectares, or 40 per cent more than the previous year. Most Afghan cannabis is treated in hashish. “In some areas, the increase in cannabis is more lucrative than growing opium poppy,” said Pietsch man, and adds: “The cannabis provides about twice the quantity of drugs per hectare growing ‘ opium. ” Drug trafficking and human traffickers to kill the Taliban in Afghanistan. Regardless of what is otherwise in 29 provinces, the “cancer” within five consumes, and destroy the nation unless it is removed. Safety is the most important factor in eradicating opium. The Taliban must be solid defeat. To achieve this objective, a massive influx of troops and supplies is needed. The destruction of the drug trade is the eradication of the Taliban, in the first place, the financial source, sharp decline in their ability to wage a long insurgency. Professor James Emery is an anthropologist and journalist, reported on regional conflicts and drug trafficking for more than 20 years, including five years abroad. It consists of several tours in Afghanistan, Myanmar and other countries drug producers and transit countries. Emery, lectures on Arab and Afghan culture and the use of anthropology applied to the stabilization of Afghanistan, global terrorism and the war on drugs. This is the first in a series of eight articles, appear in the coming months. |