AFGHANISTAN and the United States appeared to be at loggerheads yesterday after Washington announced a switch in its counter-narcotics strategy.
Richard Holbrooke, the US special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said at the weekend that the Obama administration would no longer support efforts to eradicate opium poppy plants in Afghanistan. Instead, it is switching to a strategy of
boosting efforts to fight trafficking and promoting alternative crops.
Speaking at the G8 conference in Trieste, Italy, Mr Holbrooke said: "Western policies against the opium crop, the poppy crop, have been a failure.
"They did not result in any damage to the Taleban, but they put farmers out of work and they alienated people and drove people into the arms of the Taleban."
But Afghanistan's counter-narcotics minister insisted yesterday that his country's drug policy was "perfect".
General Khodaidad said that Afghanistan had achieved "a lot of success" with its anti-drug strategy, which relies heavily on manual eradication of poppy fields, along with monetary incentives and public relations campaigns to persuade farmers not to plant poppies.
Afghan counter-narcotics police have for years used tractors or hand tools to plough under or chop down poppy plants – which yield opium, the main ingredient in heroin – but they have often come under attack and dozens have been killed by militants.
Because the country plants so much poppy, the Taleban and other militants are believed to have reaped tens of millions of dollars in yearly profits despite the police efforts.
The Bush administration had put steady pressure on the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, to step up eradication efforts, arguing that defeating the Taleban would require depriving it of drug revenue. But Mr Holbrooke said such eradication of the poppy crops "might destroy some acreage, but it didn't reduce the amount of money the Taleban got by one dollar".
A recent survey by the United Nations revealed the mixed results of the eradication policy. Out of 23 villages where Afghan officials had eradicated poppies in 2008, 11 of them – 48 per cent – still planted a poppy crop for this year.
Gen Khodaidad said the Afghan government was waiting to see details of the new US strategy and that officials would work with their American counterparts on it.
"Whatever programme or strategy would be to the benefit of Afghanistan, we welcome it," he said.
But he later added: "We are happy with our policy … so I'm not seeing any pause or, what do you call it, deficiency, in our strategy. Our strategy's perfect. Our strategy's good."
Afghanistan is the world's leading source of opium, cultivating 93 per cent of the planet's heroin-producing crop.
While opium cultivation dropped 19 per cent last year, it remains a popular crop in the country's southern provinces where the Taleban is strongest. Last year, it earned insurgents an estimated $50 million to $70m (£30m to £42m), says the UN drug office.
According to a recent UN report, opium eradication reached a high in 2003, after the Taleban were pushed from power, with more than 51,900 acres destroyed. In 2008, only 13,500 acres were cut down, compared with 47,000 acres in the previous year.
In a change of strategy by international troops, Nato forces in recent months have begun attacking drug laboratories and opium storage sites in an effort to deprive the Taleban of drug profits.
The new US policy calls for assisting farmers who abandon poppy cultivation.
Mr Holbrooke told G8 ministers that Washington was increasing its funding for agricultural assistance from tens of millions to hundreds of millions of dollars a year, said Franco Frattini, the foreign minister of Italy, the current G8 president.
