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'Taliban led West, UN up garden path on opium'

'Taliban led West, UN up garden path on opium'

Author: Manoj Joshi
Publication: The Times of India
Date: October 19, 2001

According to Indian narcotics control officials, contrary to the claims of the UN and some Western countries about the Taliban having ensured "zero cultivation" of opium this year, it is business as usual in Afghanistan as far as the drug trade is concerned.

In fact, an analysis based on processing commercially available satellite imagery has revealed that the Taliban has done little to block opium cultivation, and the decline in the production of the drug in Helmand province this year was the consequence of a drought.

According to the UN Drug Control Programme's annual poppy survey for Afghanistan, there has been a 91 per cent reduction in the total poppy area as compared to last year. But there are discrepancies in the Indian and UN estimates over the larger producing provinces of Helmand and Nangarhar. Although both India and the UN agree that very little has been produced in Helmand this year, the reasons for it differ. While the UN believes that its efforts have paid dividends, Indian officials blame the fall on the drought.

However, the two sides differ completely as regards production in Nangarhar province. While the UN believes that there has been a sharp decline (from 747 hectares cultivated last year to 218 this year), according to the Indian estimate, it has only been marginal and about 600 tonnes of raw opium, capable of producing $250 million worth of heroin, was produced there this year.

"Faced with UN sanctions, the Taliban conducted a massive deception operation earlier this year. After declaring its intention to end opium cultivation, all that the militia did was to close a few training camps. This was bought hook, line and sinker by Western officials and the media," an Indian official said.

In Nangarhar, a Western Donor Group and UN officials were reportedly taken to an area with no opium cultivation. Despite their knowledge of the areas in the vicinity where cultivation is traditionally prolific, the officials did not insist on physically verifying the area but simply took the Taliban's word for it.

After the UN gave its report, the Taliban got several million dollars for its efforts. "But," asked a bemused Indian narcotics official, "do they really think that the Taliban will kiss away a billion dollar enterprise for a few million dollars of aid?"

The analysis based on commercial satellite imagery has been done in the following way-to obtain the images, the reflectance of opium in different areas and in varying concentrations per square metres is measured. Opium is grown in India legally and so it was "spotted" from the satellite imagery to test the accuracy of the signature.

The opium was given a yellow colour to facilitate recognition and after that, the Afghan crop was tracked. Images A1, A2 and B1 and B2, all taken near Achin in Nangarhar province close to Pakistan, were taken on identical dates in April 2000 and 2001 and they showed that there was little change in the extent of cultivation. According to the officials, another indicator of the continuing participation of the Taliban in the opium trade comes from the seizure of two tonnes of opium this July in Tajikistan, in a region bordering Konduz province controlled by the Taliban.
 


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