Ambassador William Wood
Conference on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking
Kabul, Afghanistan
June 26, 2008
Ambassador Wood: I apologize for arriving late to this very very important event. I am very glad to be before you again on the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
This has been a year of important accomplishments and important disappointments in the area of combating illicit drug production and trafficking.
Attention to the issue of illegal drug trafficking and production has received more intense attention by the government of Afghanistan and the international community than ever before. There is consensus that drug production and trafficking threaten the goals of a secure, prosperous, stable and democratic Afghanistan. The achievement of this consensus is no small accomplishment. This consensus was expressed most recently at the highly successful International Conference in Support of Afghanistan held in Paris on June 12th. In the Chairman’s statement, the government of Afghanistan “committed itself to taking more effective measures to counter the production and trade of illicit narcotics.” The international community “committed itself to provide coordinated, practical assistance and other resources to support government plans and efforts.” The United States supports this conclusion and will do its part.
The government of Afghanistan took many important decisions this year. It named, for instance, a new Minister for Counter-Narcotics. We are pleased to work with him and the administration. We are also pleased to work with officials of the Ministry of Interior and other officials who are engaged in the counter-drug effort.
For the first time ever, in the last year the government committed itself to a target level for eradication. Although eradication fell short, and indeed was lower than last year’s level, we nevertheless believe this statement of determination by the government was an important step.
Seizure of drug labs accelerated. By March of this year more drug labs had been destroyed than in all of the previous year, and the effort against drug labs, drug traffickers, drug financers and drug precursors continues. Seizure of drugs also increased. In the liberation of Musa Qala by the Afghan Army, with the support of international forces, extensive drug warehouses and facilities were discovered. There can be no clearer evidence of the link between drug trafficking and Taliban terrorism than the warehouses for drugs found at what used to be the Taliban’s central staging area in Helmand.
Installations for trafficking drugs have also been found and destroyed in southern Helmand in the course of military operations to clear the Garmsir area of Taliban territory.
We must break the terror/trafficking link to unchain hope and freedom in Afghanistan
Locally led eradication made major progress. In two provinces -- Nangarhar and Badakhshan, local counter-drug efforts, which included pre-planting campaigns against drugs, increased law enforcement against drug producers and traffickers, and locally led eradication efforts, had dramatic results. We congratulate the governors of both provinces. Thanks to their efforts and to the efforts of many others, the number of provinces that are poppy free may have increased to 16 and the level of national opium production may have fallen for the first time since 2004. I say may have fallen for the first time since 2004 because we do not have the final numbers and we can’t be sure until those final numbers are submitted by the UN. But for those provinces and those governors that have engaged so effectively fighting counter-drugs, we are proud to respond by sponsoring, once the final numbers are in, up to $25 million in development projects for those provinces.
For the first time the Ministry of Defense provided protection to drug eradicators. In the Taghab District a small eradication initiative proved that ground-based eradication can be community friendly, safe, and effective if the eradicators are well trained and well led, and there is sufficient protection. We applaud the Ministry of Defense’s decision to establish two independent battalions to support ground-based eradication in the coming season. They can count on our full support to make these battalions some of the best trained, best equipped, and best led battalions in Afghanistan.
That is the good news, but it is not all good news. Opium and heroin production remain at sinfully high levels in Afghanistan. Because there never has been a drug-producing country that was not also a drug-consuming country, addiction in Afghanistan continues to rise. In this context we support the intention of the United Nations and the Ministry of Public Health to update their 2005 study on drug use inside of Afghanistan.
Yearly drug profits continue to fuel terrorism and corruption and threaten the rule of law and responsive institutional government. If, as the United Nations estimates, 15 percent of the population is directly involved in the drug trade, then 85 percent of the population is victimized by it through violence, through lawlessness and corruption, through weakening of democratic government institutions, through diversion of needed resources to fight the problem, and through the perversion of human values that life dedicated to drugs implies.
The upcoming season offers new hope for new progress against opium and heroin production in Afghanistan. The international community is increasingly united against drugs, including the International Security Assistance Force. The Afghan government already is considering how best to implement the commitment in Paris to more effective counter-drug measures. Governors have already approached me for assistance in fighting drug production in their provinces.
The national shortage of food is also producing an important new understanding of the cost of illicit drug cultivation. The U.S. has already contributed more than $25 million to provide emergency food assistance to Afghanistan. We are planning to provide additional assistance to provide more food to the people of Afghanistan. But the shortage of food demonstrates most clearly the evil of the use of farmland in Afghanistan to produce illicit drugs.
It also provides an interesting test for the thesis of alternative development. With food prices higher, the marketplace already is providing farmers who grow opium poppy with increased opportunities to move away from drug production and incentives for an alternative livelihood, more than international assistance could ever provide. In some areas, we are hearing of farmers shifting towards more agriculture and less opium poppy in keeping with the shift in market places. But there is no sign that this shift will reverse the dramatic growth in drug production over the last decade and bring production levels down to where they were.
As we see these changes occurring, they will provide a clear measure of the effectiveness of economic incentives to dissuade drug production, to see if farmers wish to, or are able to, stop producing poison and return to producing food.
So that is the perspective for the upcoming drug year as seen from the United States. Increased national and international determination to fight illicit drug production and trafficking, improved programs for law enforcement and eradication, continued incentive programs for local reduction in production, and stronger alternative development funds both from international assistance and higher market prices for legitimate food products.
We congratulate all those in Afghanistan and around the world who have worked so hard to combat the inhuman and godless problem of illicit drugs. The United States will continue to fight for your side.
Thank you very much.
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