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Record crop of heroin poppies hits anti-drug effort in Afghanistan

Richard Beeston, Diplomatic Editor
Britain’s multimillion-pound counter-narcotics operation in Afghanistan was exposed as a failure yesterday, as the country was poised to report a record poppy crop this year.

Britain is leading international efforts against opium production in Afghanistan. Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister responsible for the region, said that he was extremely disappointed with the latest results. The United Nations is expected to reveal this month that Afghanistan broke its own record for poppy production last year, when 165,000 hectares were cultivated.

“Afghanistan is facing another year of very high poppy cultivation, driven by continued high figures in the south and, to a lesser extent, the east,” Lord Malloch-Brown said. “This second increase in as many years is extremely disappointing. Yet again, Helmand [province] looks likely to be the main driver of cultivation. Early indications suggest that cultivation will exceed last year’s total.”

Helmand’s place at the top of the drugs league table for the second consecutive year is a particular embarrassment for the Government. Last year 69,000 hectares were devoted to poppy cultivation in Helmand. This year the figure will be higher and good weather means that the yield from the crop will be even greater.

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The province is home to 6,000 British troops engaged in fighting the Taleban, but they are barred by Nato’s rules of engagement from taking any direct action against poppy cultivation, even though 90 per cent of the heroin sold on British streets comes from Afghanistan. A senior Foreign Office official said yesterday that Britain had spent £290 million on a counter-narcotics campaign in Afghanistan, although he admitted that it could another 15 or 20 years to win the campaign against drugs production.

Despite the latest setback British officials insisted that new efforts would be made to tackle the cultivation and trade by boosting the Afghan Government’s own counter-narcotics operations. These include offering governors rewards for poppy eradication, offering farmers alternative crops and boosting the Afghan criminal justice system to deal more effectively with drugs traffickers.

British Forces may also play a supporting role in assisting Afghan counter-narcotics operations. This could involve providing airlifts for Afghan forces and setting up security cordons to protect Afghan counter-narcotics officers. They are also considering targeting specific traffickers with close connections to the Taleban.

“We are looking at what might be possible on the basis of counter-insur-gency action to target, in particular, Talebs who are involved in the drugs trade,” one diplomat said.

British officials believe that the answer to fighting poppy production lies in restoring security to the most lawless areas of Afghanistan, in the south and east. They point out that in areas of relative security and prosperity in the north and centre of the country, poppy production has decreased this year. Six of the thirty-four provinces in Afghanistan produced no poppy crop this year.

Britain is planning to spend an additional £22.5 million for Afghan antidrugs forces and the US said yesterday that it would contribute a further £250 million to the effort.

The British cooperation with America on the drugs strategy appeared to contrast with evidence of strains between military commanders on the ground in Afghanistan. The New York Times reported yesterday that a senior British commander in Helmand had ordered US special forces to leave the province earlier this summer.

The unprecedented move was triggered by the growing civilian casualties caused by American airstrikes against suspected Taleban targets. The growing casualty rate was undermining efforts to improve relations between the civilian population and British Forces.

Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, said in Kabul that the British commander concerned was expressing a personal view and not a new military strategy. “It is the reporting of an observation of a British officer on a particular part of the American military,” he said. “It is not the view of the Helmand task force commander, it is not the view of our Government, it is not the view of the Americans, it is not the view of the alliance,” he said.

“These things can be said in the heat of battle. These are very difficult circumstances.”