Pubdate: Wed, 04 May 2016
Source: New York Times (NY)
Copyright: 2016 The New York Times Company
Contact: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/membercenter/help/lettertoeditor.html
Website: http://www.nytimes.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/298
Authors: Taimoor Shah and Mujib Mashal

BOUNTIFUL AFGHAN OPIUM HARVEST YIELDS PROFITS FOR TALIBAN

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - It is spring that determines how a year turns 
out, according to an Afghan proverb. And if the Helmand poppy fields 
this spring are any indication, the Taliban will have a very good year.

As the opium harvest winds down across Helmand Province, 
Afghanistan's largest in territory and poppy cultivation, farmers and 
officials are reporting high yields. The skies were generous with 
heavy rainfall, and the Afghan government with its cancellation of 
annual eradication campaigns. It had lost much of the territory in 
Helmand to the Taliban anyway.

So it was with peace of mind that farmers, and thousands of seasonal 
laborers who had traveled to Helmand, scraped the gum from the opium 
bulbs. Taliban fighters were just around the corner to lend a hand - 
and to receive their share of wages and taxes, in cash or kind. The 
crowded fields amounted to an insurgent recruiter's dream.

"We are happy that we had a good harvest this year compared with 
previous years," said Abdul Rahim Mutmain, a farmer in Musa Qala 
district. Mr. Mutmain said his modest plot saw a four-fold increase 
in yield compared with 2015, which was plagued by crop failures and 
concerted government eradication.

"There is no security concern for a single laborer being checked or 
robbed by the police," Mr. Mutmain said. "The entire district is 
under Taliban control and the bulk of the harvesters are Taliban." He 
added, "Actually, this is the Taliban regime - you can take your 
narcotics anywhere or anytime you want to sell them."

The United Nations, which has described the Taliban behavior "more 
like 'godfathers' than a 'government in waiting,' " says the 
insurgency extracts a large share of its expenses from the narcotics 
trade, which the agency put at roughly $3 billion a year within Afghanistan.

The story of just how deeply the Taliban are intertwined in the 
business even at the farm level can be told by the fluctuations in 
violence since last year's poppy harvest.

For much of the winter, the insurgents had the Afghan forces on the 
back foot in Helmand, inflicting heavy casualties, overrunning 
outposts and even entire districts. The fighting reached the gates of 
Lashkar Gah, the provincial capital, drawing American and British 
special operations forces into the combat.

Then, just as harvesting began in late March and early April, 
officials reported a sudden dip in fighting. Despite the Taliban's 
official launch of their annual offensive on April 12, with violence 
intensifying across other parts of the country, Helmand is still 
experiencing a relative lull as the last bulbs of poppy are scraped.

The period of calm has allowed the Afghan Army in Helmand a rare 
breather to train and rebuild a force that took a bad beating last 
year. With men dying at alarming rates and outposts overrun easily, 
the 215th Afghan Army Corps was forced to abandon certain districts, 
bringing what remained of the troops to the headquarters for 
collective retraining.

The American-led NATO mission in Afghanistan, which has officially 
shifted to a limited role of training and assisting the Afghan 
forces, has said that overall training lagged behind because of the 
relentless tempo of fighting last year. The army was forced to turn 
out raw recruits simply to fill the gap caused by casualties and 
desertion. Now, Afghan military officials and NATO advisers say they 
are trying to refocus on quality, better logistics and cooperation at 
the large-unit level.

During the month-long harvest season in Helmand, the Taliban have 
better things to do than fight: They profit in multiple ways from the 
lush opium fields.

Their fighters often lay down their weapons to work as day laborers, 
farmers say. They also collect the opium tax they impose on the local 
level, as well as stick around for the additional 10 percent Islamic 
tax on farm produce, called ushr. Those proceeds are supposed to go 
to the needy, but often end up going to the Taliban.

Above all, the harvest season becomes a Taliban recruitment drive, 
with thousands of men coming in from all over the country who are 
already frustrated with their lack of job opportunities.

"The poppy harvest is a good time for the Taliban to interact with 
new faces - best time for new recruitment," said Bashir Ahmad Shakir, 
the head of security committee at the Helmand provincial council.

Abdul Jabar Qahraman, the Afghan government's representative in 
charge of the fighting in Helmand, said the Taliban were campaigning 
"24-7" to recruit from the pool of 15,000 laborers, mostly jobless 
young people, who arrived in Helmand for the harvest season. He said 
the government arrested some 700 of the laborers to disrupt the 
harvesting, but the men were released a few days later except for a 
small number suspected of being Taliban members.

"The war in Afghanistan is not a war of ideology, it is a war of 
financial benefits," Mr. Qahraman said.

"The poppies support the Taliban financially," he added. "The 
commanders of the Taliban stuff their pockets with cash. Once they 
receive the cash that makes their stomachs oily, they prepare 
themselves for fighting."

But Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said opium 
cultivation was a regional and "traditional" issue that brings people 
the income they need for the rest of the year.

"Poppy farming has nothing to do with us, and in such in an 
environment of conflict we cannot prevent it either," Mr. Mujahid 
said. "It's natural that in some areas the Taliban are residents of 
that area and have family needs, maybe for meeting those needs they 
may have participated in the harvesting. But it is not some formal 
work from our side."

Consider Mr. Mutmain's roughly four acres in Musa Qala district. This 
year, he said he collected about 88 pounds of raw opium, compared 
with about 30 pounds from six acres last year. Among the 25 laborers 
he hired for the 15 days of gum collection, Mr. Mutmain said 10 were 
active Taliban members who took a break to work the harvest. The rest 
were young men from other provinces, mostly neighboring areas.

"You know, they become good friends with each other - they spend at 
least 12 or 15 days, which is enough time to build trust," Mr. 
Mutmain said. The Taliban fighters recount "stories of bravery, how 
they manage to blow up armored vehicles" and overrun checkpoints.

"Those kinds of tales really impress the newcomers, and some go to 
the battlefields with them and join," Mr. Mutmain said.

Since he lives quite a distance from his fields, Mr. Mutmain built 
makeshift huts for the workers to rest in during the afternoon and 
sleep in at night. He also hired a cook who served beans, chickpeas 
and the traditional southern yogurt drink, shrumbai.

Soon after the harvesting was over, a Taliban tax collector arrived 
with a notepad and a witness, Mr. Mutmain said. Sometimes, the 
farmers need to line up the plastic bags of opium they have 
collected, each weighing about 10 pounds, for inspection. But most of 
the time, the Taliban take their word for it.

"You either pay them in the current price, or in narcotics," Mr. 
Mutmain said about the tax. He paid cash, the equivalent of $400.

Mahatabuddin Khan, another farmer in Khanshin district, said he paid 
his taxes in kind. He had hired 15 people, five of them Taliban and 
the rest young men from northern districts of Helmand, to work on his 
two acres, which ultimately yielded about 35 pounds of opium.

The tax collector arrived before the harvesting was even over. He 
estimated how much the plot in front of him would yield, and Mr. Khan 
paid just under two pounds in raw opium.

"He had a notepad to write my name and the amount of narcotic 
collected from me," Mr. Khan said of the collector.

Many across Helmand fear a difficult year of fighting ahead, now that 
the insurgent machine is fueled with new cash and fresh fighters.

"The Afghan military forces in Helmand are preparing to face the 
toughest summer season of fighting," said Mr. Shakir, the provincial 
council member.

Taimoor Shah reported from Kandahar, Afghanistan, and Mujib Mashal from Kabul.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom