 |
|
A UN report in 2003 found that one in 10 Afghans are involved in the opium trade
|
KABUL,
November 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Afghan President
Hamid Karzai filed a complaint with British and US officials
protesting spraying Afghan opium crops by anonymous aircrafts without
a government authorization, a government spokesman said on Tuesday,
November 30.
“It
is not just serious for us because of some health problems or because
it harms the other crops, (but) it is being taken very seriously
because it affects the national integrity of our country,'' Jawed
Ludin was quoted by the Associated Press as telling a news conference.
Afghan
villagers in eastern Nangarhar province had complained to the
government two weeks ago that a plane had dusted their fields and
villages with a chemical substance that killed their opium crops and
made them sick.
Responding
to the complaint, the Afghan government ordered an investigation,
which proved that a chemical substance had been sprayed in two
districts.
The
Afghan spokesman noted that an inspection of soil samples taken in the
Shinwar and Khogyani districts of Nangarhar was still going on.
Three
years after the US invasion, the United Nations has warned that
Afghanistan is still facing the threat of being a corrupt “narco-state”.
The
UN's annual opium survey revealed that poppy cultivation increased by
two-thirds this year.
The
report from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODOC) says the
narcotics trade is far bigger than anybody had realized, urging the US
and British forces to take tougher actions.
Assurance
Karzai
had held talks with the British ambassador in Kabul, who is
coordinating the country's anti-drug effort, and other foreign
officials to reinforce his opposition to spraying of the opium fields
by “foreign” hands, the Afghan spokesman added.
Karzai
received assurances that the US and UK governments “have never in
the past and will never in the future support any aerial spraying
either directly or indirectly”.
Last
year, Afghanistan exported 87 per cent of the world's drugs supplies.
Most of the opium is smuggled across the Pakistan border.
A
UN report in 2003 found that one in 10 Afghans are involved in the
opium trade which last year employed 2.3 million people, and made up
60 per cent of the gross national product
Experts
in Afghanistan have told British daily The Independent that
opium cultivation is a more significant factor in the continuing
violence and instability than the Taliban presence in the country.
