دوشنبه، ۲۱ آبان ۱۳۸۶ - ۱۰:۱۰:۴۱
The British government was reported Saturday to be planning a radical scheme to subsidize farmers in Afghanistan to persuade them to stop producing heroin, as part of a wide-ranging drive to re-energize policy in its conflict with remnants of the former Taliban regime.
UK plans to target opium factories to combat Taliban UK Drugs Strategy-Afghanistan
The British government was reported Saturday to be planning a radical scheme to subsidize farmers in Afghanistan to persuade them to stop producing heroin, as part of a wide-ranging drive to re-energize policy in its conflict with remnants of the former Taliban regime.
UK and allied forces are also looking at destroying drug factories inside Afghanistan, and a much better-targeted drive against the big traffickers responsible for 90 per cent of the opium which reaches the west, according to the Guardian newspaper.
The daily said Prime Minister Gordon Brown was expected to make a parliamentary statement on security and development in Afghanistan in the next few weeks and was also likely to highlight the strategic importance of the war against the Taliban in his first annual foreign affairs speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet on Monday.
The renewed focus on Afghanistan comes as British troop levels there are now higher than in Iraq. There are approximately 7,700 British troops in Afghanistan, compared with around 5,000 in Iraq.
It also comes after British aid agencies have criticized the shortage of western aid being set aside to provide alternative livelihoods for opium farmers in Afghanistan, and comparatively too much going on building state structures or funding public sector salaries.
Christian Aid among others have called for an aid switch to improving irrigation and water management; achieving food security through expanded cereal production; credit facilities for farmers; and building export markets for fruit and nuts.
Influential figures, including the former Foreign Office permanent secretary Lord Jay, have also become so despairing of the fight against drugs in Afghanistan that they are backing calls for opium to be produced legally and used as medical morphine, but the idea has been rejected so far.
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