KABUL, 10 January 2005 — Afghan drug smugglers seeking to protect profits made in the world’s largest narcotics industry could be granted freedom from prosecution if they invest it in the country’s reconstruction, senior Afghan officials say. President Hamid Karzai’s office wouldn’t say yesterday whether an amnesty was under discussion.
But two senior officials told the Associated Press that debate had begun on the possible move, which could blunt a planned US-sponsored crackdown on traffickers and farmers. Karzai was “considering the issue,” said Haneef Atmar, his rural development minister. “He finds it extremely difficult to bring any kind of amnesty for these people. But as a very responsible leader, he is always looking at all policy options.”
Under belated pressure from the United States and Europe, Karzai has declared a “holy war” against the narcotics trade, and said it will be the top priority for the five-year term he won in a landmark September election. Cultivation of opium poppies in Afghanistan jumped an estimated two-thirds last year and supplied 87 percent of the world’s opium, the raw material for heroin, according to a UN survey. It valued the trade at $2.8 billion, or more than 60 percent of Afghanistan’s 2003 gross domestic product.
