A stunning success in the worldwide march towards freedom?
| Yet despite the efforts of other nations and the reinforcement of deployed forces as the election approaches, one issue is particularly worthy of attention: the noticeable increase of narcotics production since 2002 and its geographical expansion in Afghanistan. Altogether, 28 of the country's 32 provinces are apparently producing opium, and employing more than 1.7 million people at this work. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, opium production in Afghanistan in 2003 amounted to about 3,600 tons -- that is to say, three-quarters of world production -- over 200,000 acres of cultivated land. More then 90 percent of the heroin arriving in France comes from Afghanistan. An even larger harvest is expected for this year as traffickers stock up to protect themselves against a reaction from the international community. Not only do these narcotics flood the global drug market, with serious consequences for public health, particularly in Europe, but their production is impeding Afghanistan's stabilization. Warlords are taking advantage of trafficking, and they are protecting it. The narcotics-related financial networks are fed by particularly powerful underworld groups that undermine authority and the rule of law.
"No-go" areas that foster crime are developing. At the same time, the money generated by trafficking makes it possible to fund attacks by the Taliban fighters still in the area. In fact, there is little doubt that drug money is funding terrorist activities. And 10 percent of the heroin produced in Central Asia is consumed locally, creating a public health problem for Afghanistan that must be confronted rapidly. |
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