Afghanistan, the forgotten project

One of the reasons that the insurgency seems to be regaining strength is that the poppy trade is flourishing.  The drug trade is seen as a source of income for the insurgency, especially in the southern regions where the crops flourish.  General James Jones, NATO’s supreme commander said that the money made from the drug trade are “obviously being funneled back into the criminal element, the resurgence of the Taliban, perhaps even al Qaeda, perhaps tribe-on-tribe warfare.”^[xxxiii]  Drug traffickers are also adding to the violence problem themselves in their bid to protect their businesses.

A troubling development in Afghanistan is that the poppy trade has never been as successful as it is today.  Efforts to curtail the crop that produces heroin has had negligible effects as the country produces 90% of the world’s illegal opium.^[xxxiv]  In 2005, $2.7 billion dollars worth of opium poppies were grown and sold in the country, which is a significant amount of the country’s economy.^[xxxv]  370,650 acres of the crop have been cultivated so far in 2006, an increase of more than 100,000 acres from 2005, 40% of it centered in Helmand Province in the south. All of these poppies resulted in 4,500 tons of opium which can be turned into 450 tons of heroin. ^[xxxvi]  These statistics underscore the prevalence of poppy and explains why Mohammed Nader Nadery of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission has already called his own nation a “narco-state.”^[xxxvii]

Leadership in the fight against drugs has been criticized.  A memo was leaked from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul to the State Department disparaging Karzai’s lack of strength and initiative on the endeavor. Afghanistan’s top counter-narcotics official Habibullah Qaderi stressed patience in dealing with the country’s drug problem amidst criticism from the head U.N. official in Afghanistan, Tom Koenigs who suggested that “the strategy and the effort have to be rethought.”^[xxxviii]  There are also concerns that government officials involved in battling the drug trade are actually on the payroll of drug dealers, complicating the issue even further.  Without an effective independent investigative system, there is no guarantee of who can be trusted.

Security is such an overwhelming concern, because of the far-reaching consequences it has on the country.  The lack of protection and stability has impeded the reconstruction efforts.  Citizens are unable to work for the future, because they fear retribution for their actions and aid workers cannot provide assistance either.

Children had been hit extremely hard because the educational system has suffered tremendously from insurgency attacks.  The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission reported that more than 300 schools are no longer in service, either due to arson or intimidation efforts.  Attacks on schools have increased with 110 reported just in the first seven months of 2006.  Threats in the form of nightly notes passed around communities have forced parents to keep their children away from school, especially girls who are more vulnerable to attacks.  Only 5% of eligible girls and 20% of boys are enrolled in secondary schools.  Increases in enrollment have dropped off while attendance remains spotty and rural schools are still a rarity.  The quality of education is also criticized as there is a lack of qualified teachers.^[xxxix]  Meanwhile, another vital part to Afghanistan’s future is also being threatened by the security situation.

Foreign aid is crucial to rebuilding this war torn country.  Security concerns have extended to the NGOs that have arrived to assist the Afghan people.  Insurgents have been targeting aid workers in an attempt to cut off the people from a chance to improve their lives.  They have also attacked locals who are coordinating efforts with the NGOs to intimidate them into refusing to cooperate.  The lack of guaranteed security makes the task of foreign workers even more dangerous and has led to organizations such as the World Food Program and the International Red Cross to pull their staff from more volatile regions.  These developments have been as a campaign by the insurgents “to deepen the Pashtun vs. non-Pashtun divide and portray themselves as the only viable alternative to the Afghan government and its U.S. backers.”^[xl]  Actions committed by the Taliban seem to have confirmed these notions, such as the execution of a Red Cross worker in Uruzgan after searching the convoy for a “Westerner” to send a message.^[xli]

These attacks have hampered the progress of recovery in the country, because projects take longer and representatives are unable to travel out to areas to directly check on developments.  Aid workers have to adapt restrictive security measures, such as altering routes and removing any signs of foreign involvement to avoid attacks.  High-risk areas are considered off-limits to NGOs forcing them to neglect the regions where their assistance is often needed the most.

This strategy also has a negative effect of lowering confidence of the local population in the promises of foreign aid.  A farmer, Mullah Jalal is an example of a struggling Afghan citizen who needs overseas assistance in sustaining his large family.  He said in a mid-July 2003 interview that an aid worker had visited his farm promising to help build a well to water the crops, but he has not returned yet.^[xlii]  Jalal is still holding out hope, but if the situation does not improve and aid workers are not willing to venture into these regions again, he and others like him, will no longer trust the assurances of foreign aid workers, thereby undermining the progress of the country.