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Imperato Calls It Again: Poppy Productions Surges To New Highs Despite Calls for Reform


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Imperato Calls It Again: Poppy Productions Surges To New Highs Despite Calls for Reform
[author:Dan Mangru Public time:Sep 6, 2007]

The annual survey estimates the increase in production of opium as more than one-third, confirming Afghanistan as the major world problem in narcotics terms.

"The really bad news is that we have an increase in the number of hectares [sown with opium poppy], we have a 17 percent increase in terms of hectares in Afghanistan, and what is perhaps even more worrrying for other countries is the increase in terms of tons -- we have a 34 percent increase in opium [production] in Afghanistan," UNODC researcher Tomas Pietschmann told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service.

The director of UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa, says the southern Afghan province of Helmand is becoming the world's largest drug supplier, with production bigger than that of entire countries, including Colombia.

Speaking in Kabul, Costa said the high growth in opium production represents a "failure" for all concerned.

"I am afraid the situation of today is a demonstration of failures by everybody," Costa said. "It is a failure on the part of the [Afghan] national administration in many respects. It is a failure on the part of foreign troops, who control the situation to increase security in the south."

Costa said the presence of the Taliban creates the right conditions for the drug trade to flourish.

"We have clearly identified the link between drug trafficking -- in general, the drug processing and the drug economy in the south -- and the behavior and the presence of insurgents," Costa said.
The writ of the Afghan government in Kabul hardly extends to the south, and what authority it has is undermined by corruption among officials and police, many of whom are complicit in the poppy growing.

Donor countries have spent millions of dollars in an attempt to dissuade farmers voluntarily from growing the poppy.

However, this shocking report was not a surprise to many including the man who has been calling for poppy eradication for the past two years, 2008 US Independent Libertarian Presidential Candidate, Daniel Imperato.

In Imperato's January 2006 release, he pointed to Bin Laden for the reemergence of poppy and commented, "Once again that the greatest threat is for al-Qaeda to regain its financial strength which is directly related to Uncle Poppy. I have addressed this situation in the past and I call on the United States and its people to demand immediate action pertaining to the war chest of Osama Bin Laden's poppy fields."

"The Taliban is the same government that supported Osama Bin Laden for many years. Now they are helping him rebuild back his strength by rebuilding the poppy plant that the Coalition forces destroyed. America should have stayed in Afghanistan long enough to rid Afghanistan of the Taliban and Bin Laden followers. But instead we went off to Iraq, because we knew we could not find Bin Laden, and we needed a decoy, a $400 billion decoy," stated Imperato.

Printed From:http://www.free-press-release.com/news/200709/1189112440.html
Source:Free Press Release