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A truckload of hashish is destroyed after being captured by Afghanistan’s NIU police

SIDEBAR

Major Challenges Face the Antidrug Program

The Afghan minister for counternarcotics told the inspector general assessment team members that income from the poppy culture was so important to the economy of the country that too-quick action to deal with the problem would risk economic collapse. Given limited tax receipts, customs revenues, and foreign assistance, the minister stated that the economy cannot afford to lose the strong economic stimulus of the poppy crop in the near future. These representative points of view suggest the government of Afghanistan’s reluctance to deal with counternarcotics (CN) issues.

Afghan officials whom the assessment team interviewed opined that corruption permeates all levels of Afghan society—the police, warlords, local and provincial leaders, and the bureaucracy. For example:

• One provincial governor was recently caught with more than nine tons of opium in his basement. Though removed from that position, he subsequently was elected to be a senator in the parliament.
• After a senior official was removed from the border guard for corruption, he defied orders and returned to his post.

Conditions such as these hamper CN efforts. Provincial governors have relative autonomy because the central government has limited ability to influence events at the provincial level. Ethnic and tribal allegiance further complicates the mix. The tendency has been to revert to time-honored reliance on family and tribal connections. In numerous interviews with the assessment team, corruption at all levels of the Afghan government ranks second to the security problem.

There is consensus among foreign and Afghan observers that the narcotics problem in Afghanistan is a long-term issue. Estimates range from three to five years to get the problem “under control, to 15 to 20 years for achieving a solution.” There is also a general view that Afghans will require U.S. government and international support to sustain a credible CN effort on their own for the foreseeable future. Thus, the international community must commit to a long-haul effort to improve the Afghan dimension. One senior German police mentor defined the issue clearly: “We must stay. What are the options?”

Excerpted from the Interagency Assessment of the Counternarcotics Program in Afghanistan, 2007.

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From the March/April 2008 issue of Serviam.