Pubdate: Tue, 20 Feb 2007
Source: Daily Telegraph (Australia)
Copyright: 2007 News Limited
Contact:  http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/113

AUSTRALIAN HELP SOUGHT FOR DRUG FIGHT

AFGHANISTAN has warned it could unravel into a terrorist-backed
narco-state unless Australia and the rest of the international
community send specialist police to combat the heroin trafficking
which is funding the Taliban insurgency.

The war-battered nation's ambassador to Canberra, Mohammed Anwar
Anwarzai, said yesterday Australia's military deployment had helped
build local trust, but a dangerous vacuum existed in the wake of their
withdrawal last year.

Afghanistan's woes include the unenviable reputation of being the
world's biggest supplier of heroin.

"Unfortunately, we are now on the verge of becoming a narco-state. I
can confess to that," Mr Anwarzai told The Australian.

John Howard has left open the possibility of sending additional combat
troops to Afghanistan, saying yesterday the situation was under
constant review.

Mr Anwarzai said the Islamist militants' increasing grip on the
country's multi-billion-dollar opium industry was funding the insurgency.

Warning there was no "quick or easy fix", he said proposals to
eradicate the country's poppy crop did not offer a solution to
Afghanistan's narcotics problem and could result in a ready pool of
new Taliban recruits if not implemented properly.

Similarly, the drug problem could not be solved alone by the Karzai
Government - it was also a problem for the West including Australia.
He had approached AUSaid about the possibility of having senior Afghan
police trained in Australia.

"The drug issue has to be dealt with by a greater effort by the
international community," he said.

And he appealed for the international community not to desert
Afghanistan, saying the NATO-led International Stabilisation Force had
the backing of all peace-loving Afghans.

"We (the international community) cannot afford to let Afghanistan
slip back into an era of negligence," he said.

"That has always been my message to my colleagues at the departments
of Foreign Affairs and Defence."

The Australian Federal Police estimates a quarter of all heroin
entering Australia comes from Afghanistan.

Latest UN figures show opium production is worth more than $3.5
billion to Afghanistan, accounting for as much as a third of the
country's gross national product.

In its first acknowledgement of the extent of the problem, Canberra is
planning to send four AFP agents to Afghanistan to help with police
training and monitoring of illicit opium exports.

Two armed AFP agents will be based in the opium heartland of Jalalabad
to gather intelligence on opium smuggling.

Last week, the Paris-based international drug policy think tank,
Senlis Council, said the next two months would be "make or break" in
southern Afghanistan as the threat of a major Taliban northern spring
offensive loomed. 
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MAP posted-by: Steve Heath