Afghanistan has assumed the
unenviable number one position in poppy cultivation and drug production,
beating rivals such as Burma and Columbia. The causes of the rise to
this spot are complex and multi-faceted, just as the causes of the
crises in Afghanistan are complicated and many-sided. The United Nations
Drug Control Program (UNDCP) listed some of the causes in its Annual
Opium Poppy Survey 1999 as follows:
Experience from South West and South East Asia, as well as Latin
America, suggests that illicit drug crops tend to be cultivated in
areas of political and military conflict. The Upper Huallaga Valley
in Peru, the Chapare, Bolivia, and the border areas of Laos, Vietnam
and Myanmar all represent areas of ethnic, social and economic
unrest. The limited on-farm, off-farm and non-farm income
opportunities in these areas has been exacerbated by the absence of
formal governance and the rule of law, further constraining public
and private investment in social, financial, physical, human and
natural capital. These conditions have created the environment for
social exclusion, the infringement of human rights and the promotion
of illegal activities.
Within this context Afghanistan provides the ideal environment
for illicit drug crop cultivation. Twenty years of war has not only
taken its toll on the economy but on the social and cultural fabric
of civil society. Moreover, the continuing economic and political
uncertainty in Afghanistan has constrained the development of longer
term livelihood strategies based on agricultural diversification and
non-farm income opportunities. As such, opium poppy cultivation has
become an integral part of livelihood strategies in rural
Afghanistan, providing access to land, labour and credit as well as
providing an important source of off-farm income for those with
insufficient land to satisfy household basic needs.
The UNDCP also advocated the idea that "poppy and drug abuse
surveys indicate an urgent need for a broader, more strategic approach
to reduction of the growing drug problem in Afghanistan". The UNDCP
specifically stressed the following approach:
A process-oriented multi-sectoral strategy that focuses on well
targeted interventions that influence the variables that determine
drug crop cultivation at the micro level, including the price of
opium, access to credit, access to water, access to unpaid family
labour, access to shared or cheap labour arrangements, the expected
cost of hired labour, access to on-farm and non-farm income
opportunities, and the risk of socially or legally punitive
measures. To prove most cost-effective, these interventions need to
take place within an enabling environment that promotes wider
macro-socio-economic, institutional and legal development.
Recent news reports stated that the UNDCP efforts had made
"substantial" reduction of opium in the targeted districts.
However, the Program is wrapping its work in Afghanistan due to lack of
additional funding. The unhindered cultivation of opium in new provinces
of Afghanistan is part of the reason additional funding is necessary.
Concurrently, the 6+2 (an elite club made-up of Afghanistan’s six
neighbors plus Russia and the US, but does not include Afghanistan) has
decided to transfer resources for a new drug control strategy of
encircling Afghanistan's borders to stop the flow of drugs. However,
please note that more than 100,000 Soviet forces failed to seal the
inflow of arms through Afghan boundaries during the more than 10 years
when the Soviets were occupying Afghanistan. Therefore, the 6+2 plan is
questionable. This new strategy may not be realistic and may not reduce
the cultivation or trafficking of drugs originating from Afghanistan. In
early 1998, the United Nations also concluded that it is not feasible to
block the more than 360 entry routes of Afghan boundaries through which
arms can be transported. If the international community cannot stop the
flow of large quantity of arms, it is doubtful that it can terminate the
flow of drugs, which can be hidden in thousands of cars, trucks,
donkeys, and human beings who cross Afghan borders daily. Accordingly,
it seems that Afghanistan's number one position in poppy cultivation and
drug production will remain unchallenged in years to come. This will
unfortunately perpetuate the adverse consequences for the Afghan society
and the rest of the world. |
