United States officials embarrassed the Afghan President, Hamid Karzai, on Sunday on the eve of his meeting with United States President George Bush by leaking the contents of a memo that said he was ”unwilling to assert strong leadership” in the country’s war against heroin production.
A cable from the US embassy in Kabul to the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, seen by the New York Times, also said Britain was ”substantially responsible” for the failure of a poppy eradication programme because it had sent teams to the wrong areas and refused to change targets.
Karzai, who will also meet Rice while he is in Washington, strongly denied the allegations on Sunday, claiming that it was the US and Britain who were responsible for the failure of the programme.
”In parts of the country where the Afghan government took the lead poppies were destroyed considerably,” he told CNN. ”So we have done our job. The Afghan people have done our job. The failure is theirs, not ours.”
He pointed out that in the areas where the plan had failed the US and Britain were in control.
”Now the international community must come and provide alternative livelihood to the Afghan people, which they have not done so far. Let us stop this blame.”
Karzai also called for tough punishments for those who allegedly abused detainees at Bagram, the main US base in Afghanistan.
”We are angry about this and we want justice, we want the people responsible for this behaviour punished,” he said.
However, Karzai said the behaviour of the interrogators should not reflect on the US government or its people. ”There are bad people everywhere,” he said.
The three-page cable sent on May 13 said that provincial officials and village elders had impeded the destruction of poppies and that Afghan officials, including Karzai, had done little to intervene.
It said: ”Although President Karzai has been well aware of the difficulty in trying to implement an effective ground eradication programme, he has been unwilling to assert strong leadership, even in his own province of Kandahar.”
The New York Times said it was shown the cable — drafted by embassy personnel involved in the anti-drugs efforts — by an official alarmed at the slow pace of poppy eradication and the effect it could have on the American-led reconstruction effort.
A state department spokesperson refused to comment on Sunday.
Despite the claim about Britain’s failings, British officials in Kabul said on Sunday they enjoyed an ”excellent” relationship with their American counterparts.
A senior official said he believed Karzai ”remained committed” to the anti-drugs fight.
But Britain and American officials have repeatedly chafed against each other in the Afghan anti-drugs effort. The problem springs partly from a disparity of influence and money — the UK officially leads the drugs war because most of the country’s heroin ends up in Europe but the US has by far the largest budget.
This year the US announced it was spending $780-million on the campaign — although Congress has approved just $260-million so far — while the UK budget is $100-million.
The US budget boost came after months of whispered criticism from US officials accusing British colleagues of taking a ”soft” approach.
Afghanistan’s heroin trade has grown explosively since 2001; it now accounts for almost all world supply and 40% of the Afghan economy.
In answer British officials said they were focusing on ”alternative livelihoods” — rural support such as wells, roads and irrigation schemes — intended to wean farmers off opium, which pays at least 10 times more than other crops.
The US has advocated faster but more controversial solutions, with mixed results: spraying crops with pesticides has met strong resistance from Afghans, and the funding of training for a paramilitary force to bust the labs and arrest the traffickers has been only modestly successful.
The leaked memo refers to a failed operation in Maiwand, near Kandahar, which saw armed farmers open fire on American-led teams attempting to uproot their opium.
In contrast the most effective drugs busts have been achieved by the Afghan special narcotics force (ASNF), a small and highly secretive military team trained by British special forces. Since January 2004 it has seized more than 100 tonnes of opium and destroyed 100 heroin labs.
British officials are coy about discussing the SAS role in the ASNF but claim it has succeeded in denting the countrywide drugs trade.
”As we speak there’s a fresh operation taking place in two districts in Kandahar,” said the British official on Sunday.
Cultivation levels have fallen by over 50% in Nangarhar, last year’s largest opium growing province, he added. – Guardian Unlimited Â