War on Drugs Comes at a Price

Friday, 18 November, 2005

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Sadiq Nangarhari

While western government leaders and officials in Kabul may argue about how effective Afghanistan’s efforts to eliminate the drug trade have been, people living in the southeastern city of Jalalabad say the campaign to stamp out opium poppy cultivation has already been too successful – and that they’re paying the price.

“There is no business any more. Now I just count the people as they pass by my store," said Mir Singh, who runs a fabric shop in Jalalabad, capital of Nangahar province.

“Farmers used to arrange their sons’ and brothers’ weddings after they sold their poppy crops. Shopkeepers then would do about 500 US dollars a day in business. Now my business has plummeted.”

Singh blames his economic woes on the government’s poppy eradication efforts. In December 2004, President Hamed Karzai announced a “jihad”, or holy war, against drugs, responding to growing concerns that the nation was in danger of becoming a fully-fledged narco-state. According to a United Nations report released last November, Afghanistan produces nearly 90 per cent of the world’s opium supply.

The international community has been anxious to see Afghanistan reduce poppy cultivation. The United States alone has earmarked 780 million dollars towards the effort, and the United Kingdom, which heads the effort, has pledged to send soldiers to help with the eradication.

But earlier this year, during a visit to the US, the Afghan president was forced to defend his campaign against drugs after reports surfaced alleging that eradication was lagging because of the reluctance of Karzai and others in the Afghan government to take on powerful warlords.

The Afghan leader rejected such criticism. "We are going to have, probably all over the country, at least 30 per cent [of] poppies reduced,” he said in an interview on CNN. "So we have done our job. The Afghan people have done their job. Now the international community must come and provide [an] alternative livelihood to the Afghan people, which they have not done so far."

The Afghan government has established a counter-narcotics ministry, and has appointed Deputy Interior Minister General Mohammad Daud to spearhead anti-drugs operations.

According to Daud, the government’s efforts have been largely successful. “Poppy cultivation has decreased significantly in Afghanistan,” he said.

Local merchants in cities like Jalalabad say they’re already feeling the effects of the campaign.

Ulfat, who has a goldsmith's store in Nangarhar province, says his business is suffering.

“Since the government has been destroying opium crops, people can no longer afford to have weddings,” he said. “They do not buy gold.”

Ulfat claims he could previously earn as much as 2,000 dollars a day.

“Karzai should have thought of alternative livelihoods before he began to eradicate the poppy fields,” he said.

Mohammad Bashir Dudyal, an economic analyst and professor at Nangarhar University, agrees that the destruction of the poppy crop has harmed the local economy.

“People have been cultivating their lands with poppy for 25 years and they earn their living through the opium business, so the eradication of poppies will have very negative effects on people,” he said.

“The government should provide farmers with facilities such as dams, roads, hospitals and schools. They should help with fruit gardens so that farmers do not cultivate opium poppies.”

Mohammad Ismael Dawlatzai, deputy director of agriculture for Nangarhar province, said the government is already providing farmers with this kind of assistance and will offer more in the future. For example, he said, the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation, FAO, has provided nearly 900 farmers with equipment such as spades and pickaxes in the Bati Koot, Surkhrud and Kama districts of Nangarhar. It is also planning to hand out 30,000 chickens to farmers to compensate for the lost opium revenues.

“We have distributed roses, from which perfume can be made, to farmers whose opium fields were destroyed in Achin, Nazian and Dara-ye-Nur districts,” Dawlatzai told IWPR, adding that 650 farmers in Surkhrud district have received vegetable seeds, and five markets have been established where farmers can sell their produce.

But farmers say that the government assistance does not do nearly enough to make up for the loss of their lucrative poppy crops.

“I used to make 2,000-3000 dollars [a year] from one acre of my land growing poppies,” said Mir Mohammad Pacha, a farmer in Achin district.

“The government destroyed my field and in return they gave me two or three kilos of wheat, which is not even enough to feed my chickens.”

Haji Din Mohammad, governor of Nangarhar province, said, “I admit that our farmers are very poor and I realise their problems. We destroyed the poppy fields because it was a danger for the central government.

“I have spoken with the government and the aid agencies to ask them to help solve the farmers’ problems.”

Shortly after this interview, the governor was shifted to take charge of Kabul province as part of a reshuffle of provincial leaders by President Karzai.

Meanwhile, local entrepreneurs and former poppy farmers are suffering.

“We used to bring cars from Herat to Jalalabad and then sell them to drug smugglers,” said Mohammad Jamil Mamlawal, who has a car dealership in Jalalabad. “But now no one is buying cars, except for some people who work for international organisations.”

Esmael Pacha, a resident of Achin district, had to abandon plans to take his wife for medical treatment in Peshawar in nearby Pakistan after the government destroyed his poppy fields.

“The eradication of poppies equals the killing of poor farmers,” he said. “My wife has heart disease, and I need that opium money to get her treatment.”

Some believe that the anti-drugs campaign is an example of double standards by the West.

Mullah Sabir Shah, who lives in Jalalabad, told IWPR, “ Opium is against Islam - it is haram. But foreigners have wine and cigarettes, and millions of people die from smoking. Also, American factories pollute the air and hurt the whole world, but America does nothing about it. I am surprised at the Americans and their allies.”

Sadiq Nangarhari is a freelance reporter in Jalalabad; Hafizullah Gardish is IWPR’s local editor in Kabul.