US State Department employee accuses Karzai of drug involvement

Bangladesh News.Net
Thursday 24th July, 2008

A former US narcotics official has accused Afghan President Hamid Karzai of obstructing efforts to tackle his country's drugs problem.

The New York Times has reported ex-US State Department employee, Thomas Schweich, claimed Mr Karzai had protected drug lords for political reasons.

In the article Mr Schweich claimed "narco-corruption went to the top of the Afghan government".

Mr Schweich said: "Karzai was playing us like a fiddle. The US would spend billions of dollars on infrastructure development; the US and its allies would fight the Taliban; Karzai's friends could get richer off the drug trade; he could blame the West for his problems; and in 2009 he would be elected to a new term."

President Karzai has denied the claims, saying that nobody has done as well as his government in the last seven years in the field of counter-narcotics.

He said his government had eradicated or greatly reduced drug production in more than half of the country's provinces.

Afghanistan's lucrative poppy crop supplies more than 90% of the world's illicit opium, the main ingredient of heroin, and is a valuable source of funds for the Taliban.

Mr Schweich backed earlier claims that Nato and US military commanders had been reluctant to get involved in fighting drugs, fearing that destroying farmers' crops would alienate tribesmen and increase support for the insurgents.

He also claimed the Afghan president was not prepared to move against drug lords in the country's south, where most opium and heroin is produced, because the area is his political powerbase.

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