KABUL, 7 March 2004 — Afghan President Hamid Karzai yesterday called for a “jihad” against the country’s growing narcotics trade, saying the drug industry threatened the stability of the government.
In his first press conference since returning to Kabul following an aid meeting in Berlin at which donors pledged some $8.2 billion to help rebuild the war-shattered nation, Karzai called on tribal elders to fight against the narcotics trade.
“I call upon the elders to struggle against narcotics very strongly, jihad-style,” he said. “Narcotics is one of the things which threatens our dignity, our economy, our agriculture. It threatens our government and our roots — and it is against our religion.
“Narcotics are very bad for Afghanistan’s name, and the profits go to the mafia,” Karzai said, adding that his administration would attempt to combat the problem whether it received international assistance or not. “This is a widespread jihad which covers the entire country.”
Afghanistan is the world’s biggest producer of opium used to make heroin and according to UN reports this year’s poppy crop is expected to be the largest ever.
The government has announced a campaign to destroy at least 25 percent of this year’s poppy crop around the country under which poor farmers will be given some leniency. The government is also encouraging farmers to grow alternative crops such as saffron.
Karzai admitted Afghanistan had made mistakes in combating drugs in the past and now had to increase its efforts to remove the scourge. “We have made some mistakes,” he said, saying that a plan to pay farmers $250 per tenth of a hectare of poppy crop destroyed by government officials in 2002 had only encouraged people to plant opium poppies.
“That cash encouraged farmers to cultivate poppy this year,” he said. “The farmers said: ‘If the government destroys our land, it will pay money and if it doesn’t destroy the land you have your poppy field’.”
Karzai praised the Berlin meeting at which donors pledged more than four billion dollars for this financial year and $8.2 billion over the next three as a “great success.”
Karzai criticized the warlords who maintain private armies and control large parts of the Central Asian nation, saying they are cooperating with terrorists.
“Warlordism, the gun culture and terrorism are moving hand in hand,” he said. Karzai said he was baffled by why Afghanistan had become the global centre for narcotics production.
However, the eradication of illicit drug crops began in southern Afghanistan yesterday with the destruction of poppy fields in Kandahar province, state media reported.
Some 6,000 square meters of poppy fields were destroyed and thousands more will be by the end of the month, Bakhtar news agency quoted an official as saying. “The poppy eradication program began with three juribs (2,000-square-meter areas) of land of poppy fields in Dand district of Kandahar,” Bakhtar said.
“Using 35 tractors, more poppy fields will be destroyed in Dand, Shah Wali Kot, Arghandab, Daman, Jarai, Panjwayi and Maywand districts of Kandahar.”
