Speeches
Ambassador William Wood’s Remarks at the Third Annual National Counter Narcotics Conference: The Cancer of Drug Production Must be Stopped
August 29, 2007
The drug problem in Afghanistan is not just another drug problem, like so many around the world. The UNODC Report issued on Monday says that Afghanistan’s opium production has reached a “frighteningly high new level” and that, with one exception more than 100 years ago, “no other country in the history of the world has ever produced narcotics on such a deadly scale.”
More than 3 million Afghans, or almost 15 percent of the population, are involved in opium cultivation. They are a disproportionate part of a growing national addiction problem. They also represent a criminal core loyal to their drug bosses, who betray institutional rule of law through insurgency, violence, intimidation, or corruption. They, like the Taliban with whom they collaborate, want to see the government weak, ineffective and corrupt. And the people afraid.
Several provinces – most but not all in the south – account for the vast bulk of Afghanistan’s opium production. In 2007, Helmand, Nangarhar, Kandahar, Uruzgan, Farah, Nimroz, and Badakshan all produced more than 150 metric tons of opium poppy. For two of them – Faryab and, more importantly, Badakhshan – this represented a reduction from the previous year. We applaud their efforts and urge them to eliminate drugs entirely.
Two provinces saw increases four times larger than the previous year’s opium production: Nangarhar and Nimroz. These are deeply disappointing numbers. Nangarhar increased by 827 metric tons, a dangerous step back to the past, when Nangarhar was one of the chief opium poppy producers in Afghanistan. I know the commitment of many in Nangarhar to end this threat, and we pledge to work with them.
Kandahar increased its opium production by more than 300 metric tons, in spite of genuine efforts by the governor to eradicate some 8,000 hectares of poppy and an improving security situation. This also is deeply disappointing, and demonstrates that the drug trade may be even more resistant to rule of law than the insurgency. Kandahar is one of the richest provinces in the country, and a unique center of historic and cultural importance. It also has received more than $250 million in US assistance since 2002. Kandahar has no excuse.
But one province stands alone, and I say this with no disrespect to my friend Governor Wafa, but rather with sympathy. Helmand produced more than half the opium in Afghanistan, and produced almost half the heroin in the world – 49 percent or 4400 metric tons. There is no calculation of the human cost of such production. But I can tell you this: if one ton of opium destroys even one life – and it certainly destroys more than that – Helmand alone is destroying more than 4,000 people with last year’s production. Shame on you, Helmand.
Helmand increased its cultivation of opium poppy to more than 100,000 hectares. The opium production of Helmand this year was higher than the entire opium production of Afghanistan in 2005.
Helmand contains some of the richest farmland in Afghanistan, made richer by irrigation supplied by international assistance, and now diverted to drug production. Helmand has received more than $400 million in development assistance from the US since 2002. If it were a country, Helmand would be the sixth largest recipient of US development assistance.
Why do the people of Helmand grow so much opium? For make no mistake about it, drug cultivation on this scale is not an isolated phenomenon or merely the product of a few criminals; it requires the acceptance and participation of the people. It is not because they are poor. By Afghan standards, Helmand is wealthy; so simply providing an economic alternative will not work. It is not because it is traditional; Helmand has never produced drugs on the scale of recent years. It is not because it is cultural; growing drugs is contrary to Islam, as President Karzai and so many other speakers have said. It is not that growing opium is smart; addiction in Helmand is skyrocketing, especially among those who work in the drug fields, and their children
Helmand grows drugs for the criminal profits the drugs bring. Helmand grows opium because the criminal drug traffickers and their insurgent partners, the Taliban, want to use those profits, one for a life of power and luxury, the other for a mission of destruction and dominance. Helmand grows opium either because the people support these goals, or because they have been intimidated into it. Shame on you, Helmand.
It is hard to see how the international community can continue to provide assistance to a province so determined to challenge international standards, the rule of law of Afghanistan, and the teachings of Islam.
The national government and the international community are agreed: the cancer of drug production must be stopped. We will pursue a reinvigorated, more dynamic policy in the year to come. As the Minister of Interior said, teams have already been in the south, informing the people of these new programs.
Interdiction will increase. The US will more than double its funding, personnel, and programs for interdiction. Others are also increasing their efforts. Together we will target shipments of drugs, drug labs, drug precursors, drug money, and drug traffickers with new methods and new determination. Where there is a link to the insurgency, military forces will help. Drug trafficking will become more difficult and more dangerous.
Eradication will increase. My personal goal is to eradicate 50,000 hectares, an amount about equal to the new cultivation this year and about equal to 25 percent of the total crop, in order to dissuade new cultivation. Not just voluntary eradication. Effective, forced eradication, aimed at the rich growers, the fellow-travelers of the insurgents, and the corrupt leaders. With protection for the eradicators. And a willingness to consider ever more direct methods where eradication is challenged.
Development assistance will be provided to those who need it and want to use it for legitimate production and employment, to make better lives for themselves and their families. We already have provided new roads to help farmers and others bring their products to market. We are working on ambitious electricity projects, if the insurgents will allow them to go forward, to bring light to the night, and warmth to the winter, and jobs and production to those who want to work honorably. We are developing cooperative markets to purchase legitimate farm products. Together we can make Afghanistan peaceful and happy, if the drug traffickers and the Taliban insurgents who collaborate with them can be contained and defeated.
We will provide new incentives: development programs coordinated with the provincial governors, President Karzai's ambassadors and representatives to hte provinces. Under the new Good Performer’s Initiative and the Counter Narcotics Trust Fund, we will provide for the next season the following:
• $1,000,000 to provinces that are certified to be poppy-free for the first time or that remain poppy free. As the Acting Minister for Counter Narcotics said, these include Logar, Paktia, Panjshir, Wardak, Ghazni, and Paktika, Khost, Parwan, Kunduz, Bamyan, plus newcomers Nuristan, Balkh, and Samangan. We congratulate all these provinces and hope to see them on the list next year.
• Special incentives to provinces that have made an extraordinary effort to eradicate or interdict, or prosecute high level traffickers. Four representatives from each of these provinces will be invited to the US to share their experiences with American leaders and the American people. This year, as the Acting Minister for Counter Narcotics said, Balkh, Badakhshan, Baghlan, Sari Pul, Laghman and Kunar will be recipients.
• In a completely new initiative, up to $1,000 per hectare for each hectare of poppy verifiably eliminated in any province, based on UN numbers, either by reduced planting in the fall or eradication in the spring. We already have requested $50 million for this effort, and more may be available.
In the end, as President Karzai said, international incentives and international cooperation cannot do the job. Afghanistan has proved for centuries that it belongs to Afghans. It is they who give it its identity, its values, its leadership, and its life. And it is Afghans who must decide what identity, values, leadership, and life they want. Drugs threaten development. Drugs threaten the truth of Islam. Drugs threaten the rule of law. Drugs threaten health. Drugs threaten human dignity and human decency. Drugs threaten Afghanistan’s relations with the world. Drugs threaten democratic government. Drugs threaten peace.
Afghanistan the unconquerable, which has endured and resisted so much, must not be conquered by greed and the false god of drugs.
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