Pubdate: Wed, 28 Jun 2006
Source: Daily Herald-Tribune, The (CN AB)
Copyright: 2006 The Daily Herald-Tribune
Contact:  http://www.dailyheraldtribune.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/804
Author: Bob Weber,  The Canadian Press

CANADA'S 'EYES WIDE OPEN'

Afghanistan Opium Poppy Report Pooh-Poohed By Politicians, Military

Canadian politicians and military leaders are rejecting a British 
report suggesting both troops and Afghan civilians are being killed 
because of Canada's support of failing U.S. policies on elimination 
of the opium poppy crop.

The poppy eradication campaign has driven rural farmers into such 
extreme poverty that they are shifting their support to the Taliban 
as the international community and the Afghan government fail to meet 
their basic needs, says the report by the London-based Senlis Council.

"Canadian troops have been handed an impossible mission which can 
only lead to significant casualties," says the report, released on Wednesday.

"Until Canada fundamentally re-evaluates its approach and creates its 
own new strategy for its presence in Kandahar, with a clear split 
from the failed U.S. policies there, the Canadian mission in 
Afghanistan is blindly following a path that will lead to senseless 
military and civilian casualties."

But Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said Canada isn't blindly 
following anyone.

"Our eyes are wide open. We know what we're doing over there," 
O'Connor said in Edmonton.

O'Connor acknowledged poppy eradication is a tough sell in a country 
where its cultivation is often the only form of livelihood.

"We have to find some way to compensate the farmers," he said.

"I believe that if you're going to destroy somebody's crop, you have 
to give them compensation."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended Canada's activities in the 
war-ravaged country.

Canada is working to eliminate the threat of terrorism, but also 
wants to eliminate drug trafficking which is causing problems in our 
streets, he said.

"For that reason we support the efforts of the international 
community to eradicate drug production," Harper said.

"Of course, we're not directly involved in the eradication of the 
growing of poppies, but we do support those efforts and we support 
the efforts of providing alternatives to people."

Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier described the report as the 
work of drive-by experts.

"One of the thing that I found when I was the commander on 
international operations was the most dangerous thing of all was the 
individual who visited the theatre of operations for 48 hours and 
then left as instant experts with the solution to everything, which 
invariably was wrong," he said from Edmonton Garrison.

"We don't have everything right in Afghanistan. We know that. Each 
day we change the way we do business just a little bit and we'll 
continue to do that until the day we come home from that mission."
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MAP posted-by: Beth Wehrman