DTN News: Sochi Summit Seeks To Break Curse Of Afghan Heroin

DTN News: Sochi Summit Seeks To Break Curse Of Afghan Heroin

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources including RT

(NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW, Russia- August 18, 2010: Afghanistan is the world's largest opium producer, and analysts say a regional approach is the key to winning the global war on drugs. It is the second four-nation meeting of its kind. The first one was held in Tajikistan’s capital of Dushanbe last year. Back then leaders focused on cross border projects, security issues and economic recovery of the region. This year the event’s agenda remains the same. Russia is reluctant to get involved in military action in Afghanistan, but continues to seek a role in settling the conflict. Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has met with his Afghan counterpart Hamid Karzai. Russia has been showing its commitment to financially assist the region and Afghanistan in particular. Just several months ago, Russia wrote off the last portion of Afghan debt – $12 billion overall. In connection with this, Russia’s president announced today at the summit that “Russia firmly supports all efforts on the part of Afghanistan to restore peace in the country. We also support the Afghan government’s fight against terror and are ready to provide any help needed to tackle the problem,” Medvedev said. For Russia, Central Asia is a traditional sphere of interest and it has always been sensitive to the instability of the region caused by the Afghan problem. Drug trafficking and Islamic radicalism spreading from Afghanistan are the main security threats. In addition, the drug trade is the main source of finance for Afghan militants. Russia, which became the world’s largest consumer of heroin after the US-military alliance occupied Afghanistan, is striving to break up the drug channeling. An estimated 30,000 people die in Russia annually due to drug abuse, a third of the total world drug death toll. Opium and heroin are pouring into Russia and further into Europe by way of the northern route over the Afghan-Tajik border. Also, Tajiks need no visas to visit Russia, which eases the risk for drug traffickers. Tightening security on the border is one of the central issues of the four-sided talks. President Medvedev is also pushing energy and transportation projects to facilitate economic recovery in the region. Last year Russia finished construction of a major hydroelectric power plant in Tajikistan which produces 12% of all the country’s energy needs. Several other ambitious projects with multi-million investments are being discussed at the talks. Sealing off Afghan’s heroin flow Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan stretches 1,200 kilometres, which is approximately 750 miles. Tajik border guards are being trained by the Russian Federal Security Service under a deal signed back in 2004. The use of different weapons, physical education, combat tactics, and survival techniques are all part of the course. Turning a boy into a soldier is a hard task in itself, but getting him ready to guard one of the trickiest borders in Central Asia is even more difficult. Training sessions are held every day regardless of the time of year. Despite extreme summer heat the troops train in full combat harness to get accustomed to it since it is what they will have to wear on the job. Every six months trained soldiers are sent to guard the border while new conscripts arrive, continuing the cycle. “Terrorism, drug and arms smuggling, and human trafficking have put this region in the global spotlight. That is why there are currently over 20 international organizations, including the UN and the OSCE working in Tajikistan alone,” informs representative of Russian Federal Security Service in Dushanbe Anatoly Mikheyev. Afghanistan produces over 90% of all opium in the world. According to the UN, the death toll from opiates in NATO countries is five times more than all the NATO soldiers who died in Afghanistan since 2001. In Russia, the government says Afghan heroin kills more people in just one year than the whole ten-year-long Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan did. The USSR’s decade in the country resulted in the loss of approximately 15,000 troops. According to Rashid Abdullo, an independent political analyst and the author of dozens of articles about Tajikistan, the flow of drugs is unlikely to stop no matter how strong the border is. “This problem may have various technical solutions. But it will never be fully solved while there is fighting in Afghanistan and global demand for opiates,” said Abdullo. Afghan opium production has grown by a third since the US-led invasion in 2001. It is thought the billion dollar black market brings more money than all foreign investments put together. That is why it is unlikely that even the most advanced border-control system possible would solve the problem completely; for the smugglers, business is simply too good. Aleksandr Selivanov from the Moscow State University for the Humanities believes that there is no way to resolve the situation in Afghanistan without improving the security situation. “It’s not possible to do so because there is currently no stability, and if there is no stability, there is no control,”Selivanov told RT. “A way out could be just building the ring of security and stability with the help of all stake holders in the region, in Central Asia. Mainly, it’s Russia, it’s Afghanistan, it’s Pakistan, and of course it should be, in a way, Iran, [as well as] Tajikistan.” “I don’t think [it is possible to solve the problem by just destroying the poppy fields], because opium makes 52% of the Afghan GDP, and in the heroin market its record is 92% of the world market, so the whole economy is based on the drug market,” Selivanov noted.

*This article is being posted from Toronto, Canada By DTN News ~ Defense-Technology News, contact:dtnnews@ymail.com

DTN News: U.S. Forces Enter Taliban Strongholds in Afghanistan

DTN News: U.S. Forces Enter Taliban Strongholds in Afghanistan

*Source: DTN News / AP (NSI News Source Info) KABUL, Afghanistan - July 4, 2009: U.S. Marines moved into Taliban territory in southern Afghanistan on Friday to win over local leaders and populations, and so far have met little resistance from the Taliban, according to a military spokesman. U.S. Marines from the 2nd MEB, 1st Battalion 5th Marines walk carrying their weapons, ammunition, food, and water for a second day as they make their way through the Nawa district in Afghanistan's Helmand province Friday, July 3, 2009. One Marine was killed and several others injured or wounded on Thursday, after 4,000 Marines flooded into the opium-producing province of Helmand, in the largest military operation since the U.S.-led ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001, reported the Associated Press. Military spokesman Capt. Bill Pelletier said so far, there has been little resistance from the Taliban. The main goal of the operation is not just to kill Taliban fighters, he said, but to win over the local population. Afghan National Army soldiers search a compound during a joint patrol with U.S. Marines from the 2nd MEB, 1st Battalion 5th Marines in a village in the Nawa district in Afghanistan's Helmand province Friday July 3, 2009. "We are not worried about the Taliban, we are not focused on them. We are focused on the people," said Pelletier, according to the AP. "It is important to engage with the key leaders, hear what they need most and what are their priorities." As the operation entered its second day, the units secured control of the district centers of Nawa and Garmser, and negotiated entry into Khan Neshin, the capital of Rig district, said Pelletier. "They waited for the local and village elders," outside Khan Neshin and "with their permission they went in and now are engaged in talks," he said, quoted the AP. U.S. Marines from the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade, 1st Battalion 5th Marines sit with Afghani residents of the village of Noghara in the Nawa district in Afghanistan's Helmand province Friday July 3, 2009. U.S. forces have encountered little resistance in the initial phase of a massive operation by some 4,000 Marines in Taliban-controlled areas of southern Afghanistan, but that's a common tactic by insurgents. In addition, hundreds of British troops have key seized canal crossings in a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan, military officials said on Friday. Taking ground from the Taliban in Afghanistan has always proved easy, but keeping it and ensuring the government's presence has been the hard part. The military challenges are compounded by the fact that the area is the world's largest producer of opium, and drug profits feed the insurgency and corrupt government officials. Afghanistan accounts for more than 90 percent of the world's production of opium, and Helmand alone is responsible for about half that amount, according to the AP. The Pentagon is deploying 21,000 additional troops to Afghanistan in time for the elections in August and expects the total number of U.S. forces there to reach 68,000 by the end of the year.

French In Show Of Force In Deadly Afghan Valley

French In Show Of Force In Deadly Afghan Valley

(NSI News Source Info) Sarobi, Afghanistan - March 15, 2009: It is still night when the convoy moves off, winding through hills like a huge snake: around 100 French armored vehicles descend into a valley east of Kabul, their lights lacing through the darkness. More than 500 French soldiers and 300 Afghan police and soldiers, as well a handful of men from the Norwegian Special Forces on all-terrain quad bikes are on the ground for ‘Operation Three Valleys’ in the district of Sarobi. French soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Above, reconnaissance drones and helicopters watch over the only route, a difficult and dusty road that is vulnerable to ambushes. It was just a few kilometres (miles) from here that the French military last August suffered its heaviest loss in 25 years when 10 soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack. ‘We want to show the people and the insurgents that the French army is not here for revenge but that we will go where we want to and when we want to,’ says Colonel Franck Chatelus, who commands the French battalion in Kabul. The Afghan forces lead this push into a sometimes hostile area.‘This is also the time to show that the Afghan army today is not the same one of a few years ago, when it looted the country and maltreated the population,’ Chatelus adds.The area, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the capital, is austere, stoney and mountainous; in the valley, small villages of mud-brick houses suddenly appear alongside a few fields. French soldiers take position on the ridges while Afghan troops cover the police as they enter a village called Washa Kalay with a hostile reputation. A quick search of some houses reveals nothing of interest but there is a field of opium poppies a lucrative crop that officials say finances some of the insurgents. Police unenthusiastically uproot some of the shoots with a wooden spade, stamping on others.‘The insurgents who were in the village have gone to the other side of the mountain in Laghman province,’ says Mohibullah Babakar Khel, from the Afghan intelligence service. Later the French colonel addresses elders in the village ‘We offer our hand to the insurgents who agree to give up and cooperate with us.’ ‘Give us your mines and bombs so that we can destroy them otherwise they risk killing or wounding your children.’ The impoverished residents demand a well, electricity, a school. ‘If a school is built, this area has to be secure. And a school would have to be for boys and for girls,’ says a French officer, referring to a tendency to prevent girls getting an education.The French put on an impressive security cover for a visit the next day to the village of Siri Kalay but wait an hour for the police to arrive enough time for any insurgents to hide arms or ammunition.This time only Afghan police enter the village, making for an unoccupied house that is said to belong to a ‘Commander Rostam,’ a member of the radical Hezb-e-Islami faction who has fled to Pakistan. The raid nets police and military uniforms as well some electrical components, perhaps used for detonators. ‘Here the people are all against us,’ says 20-year-old policeman Nasratullah, who earns just 120 dollars a month. ‘Policemen have been killed close by. Without the planes of the international forces, they would have ambushed us.’ The rebels may have been silent but the area is still dangerous on the first day of the operation, mine clearers destroyed three rockets already in their launchers.But the foreign troops part of a steadily expanding NATO-led International Security Assistance Force that now numbers about 62,000 across Afghanistan believe they have made an impression. ‘The outcome of the operation is not material but psychological and moral. Little by little we are gaining the confidence of the population,’ says Chatelus, the French colonel. ‘The insurgents were unable to do anything, they have been discredited in the eyes of the people,’ he says

Burma's Opium Production Back On Rise

Burma's Opium Production Back On Rise

(NSI News Source Info) February 4, 2009: News for farmers making a living off the isolated fields and forests of Burma has been dismal over the past few months. Prices for rubber, a key crop, are down an estimated 75% in the southeastern Mon State. Rice has lost a quarter of its value, while maize has been cut by half. Teak, betel nut and palm oil have also been ravaged by the global drop in commodity prices, throwing millions of Burmese who barely cling to the poverty line further into distress.

Burma's Opium Production Back on Rise. Poppies grow in a field in Burma's Shan State.

But one crop in Burma hasn't been affected: poppies, the colorful blooms that have been processed into opium for thousands of years, and, in more recent history, refined into heroin. A Feb. 2 report by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime found that the price of opium in Burma, also known as Myanmar, increased by 15% last year.

As a result, Burmese land dedicated to poppy cultivation actually expanded in 2008, despite promises by the country's ruling junta to combat its reputation as one of the world's most notorious narco-states. The uptick in last year's Burmese poppy cultivation signals just how easy it is for impoverished farmers to turn to a delicate red flower when things get tough. Most of Burma's poppies flourish in the northeastern Shan State, which abuts the infamous Golden Triangle, where the borders of Burma, Thailand and Laos meet.

(The flowers are also grown in Kachin and Karen states.) And given the omnipresence of opium and heroin smuggling in Burma — the nation is the world?s second-largest poppy producer, after Afghanistan — it's hard to imagine how the trade can flourish without at least the tacit support of the military regime that has ruled there since 1962. Back in 1999, Burma's top brass unveiled a 15-year plan to completely eliminate opium cultivation. For a few years, production, as measured in part by U.N. helicopter forays over Burma, did indeed decline. But the U.N. now reports that poppy land has increased by 33% since the lowest levels recorded in 2006.

Last year was the second consecutive year of growth, and the trend shows how unlikely it is that the junta will make good on its goal of completely wiping out poppies by 2014. (The alarming statistics didn't stopped Myanmar T.V., however, from claiming earlier this month that the anti-drug effort is going forward with "added momentum" and "remarkable progress.") Opium and heroin aren't the only drugs that provide an economic lifeline to Burma. For years, an influx of Burmese-made methamphetamine has flooded into neighboring Thailand and China, feeding Asia's chemically induced highs. There are some signs that the Burmese government is trying to stanch the drug flow.

In January, a high-profile raid in the Burmese commercial capital, Rangoon, netted a large amount of heroin loaded onto a ship bound for Singapore, according to the Irrawaddy, a media organization run primarily by Burmese in exile in Thailand. But the raid appears to have been galvanized by foreign anti-drug agents, and, as the Irrawaddy points out, it's not clear whether the Burmese junta would have raided the ship without international pressure.

In the mean time, Southeast Asia's largest narco-state continues to thrive. And some Burmese farmers are able to fill their bellies for now, even as they are feeding the world's drug habit.

How To Start Winning The War In Afghanistan / To Conclude Afghan's War, Two Factors Required - Close Pakistani Border (Taliban Reinforecement) ....

How To Start Winning The War In Afghanistan / To Conclude Afghan's War, Two Factors Required - Close Pakistani Border (Taliban Reinforecement) & Shut Down Opium Trade (Taliban Revenue) (NSI News Source Info) January 19, 2009: In a gunbattle a few days ago, NATO troops killed 12 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan and stopped a would-be suicide bomber. The fight got little attention because, sadly, in Afghanistan this is more or less routine. The Afghan conflict now takes more lives each month than the war in Iraq, and the incoming Obama administration plans to dispatch at least 20,000 additional troops to tackle the growing violence. Many British battalions need bringing up to strength before they can be sent to Afghanistan. Britain has deployed more than 8,000 soldiers in Afghanistan, making it the second largest contingent in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) after the United States. Nearly 70,000 troops are serving in ISAF helping the Afghan government to fight an insurgency led by the Taliban, who were in power between 1996 and 2001. The US plans to send 20,000 extra forces into southern Afghanistan to help British, Canadian and Dutch soldiers battle militants. Sending more troops, it's patently clear, is a waste of time, money and lives. In fact, sending more troops to Afghanistan will be about as effective as bailing out a boat without plugging the leak. Three difficult problems fuel the war in Afghanistan. The United States and its allies have failed in their efforts to control any of them. How can NATO troops quell an uprising when enemy fighters, suicide bombers, weapons agents and support personnel pour over the border from Pakistan at will, without hindrance, day and night? How can those troops quell an insurgency when the enemy is buying weaponry and enriching himself with drug money as much as $100 million a year from, the United Nations says, the southern areas of Afghanistan he controls. And how can Western forces enlist cooperation from the government it is trying to protect when government leaders are also sucking up money from the opium farmers at such a voracious rate that Afghanistan is now classified as the fifth most corrupt nation on Earth? The obvious answer is that, until these problems are brought under control, the war cannot be won. The Bush administration's strategy for stopping the flow of enemy fighters - paying the Pakistani government to do it - has been an abject failure costing more than $10 billion so far. The weakness of this approach has been apparent for more than two years, and yet the money still flows. President-elect Barack Obama has suggested he will stop the program. In fact, the West has to recognize that Pakistan cannot, will not, ever step up to the plate and take out the militants in the tribal areas. So, what can be done? There's only one answer: Close Afghanistan's border with Pakistan, everywhere but in a few heavily controlled crossing points. That's impossible, right? The 1,500-mile border is rugged, unmarked and in dispute. Closing it would be infinitely harder than controlling the U.S. border with Mexico. All of that is true, but there's one big difference: Afghanistan is a war zone. Declare the border closed, patrol it with helicopter gunships, and shoot anyone who tries to cross. That may not seal the border, but it should significantly slow the flow of militants. Dedicate some of those new American troops to this mission. Pakistan might appreciate it, given the cross-border attack on a military base this week. Now, what about the opium? For years now, Afghanistan has grown enough opium to supply more than 90 percent of the world's market for heroin. All of this has grown up since 2002, just after the U.S. invasion. The year before, paradoxically enough, it was the Taliban who managed to shut down the opium trade by warning farmers that they would face retribution if they did not stop growing opium. In 2001, Afghanistan produced no opium, none. As the size of the crop soared a few years ago, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, told a visiting American official (who then told me) that he planned to appeal to the farmers' better nature and convince them that growing opium was not good for the nation. Well, that didn't work. Two years ago, U.S. officials asked for permission to spray the opium crop with Roundup, a nontoxic herbicide, the same one used to spray coca plants in Colombia. Of course, the Afghan government didn't like this idea, saying it would anger the farmers. More likely it would anger the government officials who sit on fat wallets, enriched by the drug trade. Last year, Karzai formally said no, so NATO dropped the idea. The United States, Afghanistan's patron state, needs to tell Karzai that the price of continued support is the immediate eradication of the opium crops. Sure, the farmers will be angry. But what's worse: enraging some constituents or standing by while these same people hand over $100 million a year to your enemy? The Afghan war is not lost. But turning the conflict around will require tough decisions. Close the Pakistani border. Shut down the opium trade. Let's not spend seven more years pursuing an enhanced version of a strategy that has already failed. Joel Brinkley is a professor of journalism at Stanford University and a former foreign policy correspondent for the New York Times.