Interview with local commander with links to southern poppy cultivation

Arghandab, Mohammad Azim, a warlord based in the district of Arghandab, 20 km south of Kandahar city in the southern province of the same name, has spoken in an interview with IRIN of his personal involvement in poppy cultivation and warned that the poppy eradication campaign under way this year would lead to economic and social instability, and the rural population turning against Kabul's already weak authority. Azim, who finances his private militia with proceeds from the poppy trade, was not prepared to take responsibility for the problems his opium causes in the West and blamed those who process and trade in the drug, rather than the farmers. QUESTION: How much you are involved in the opium business in your region? ANSWER: This is routine and common throughout the country. I cannot go into detail, but I live in this area and like any other villager I have to look for ways to sustain myself and my family. Right now, that is only possible through the poppy business. With regard to trafficking, no one will believe that commanders like me with less than 100 troops could have any trafficking ability. They [traffickers] are bigger than the government. Many of them themselves are high government people. Q: Don't you accept that poppy cultivation and trafficking is illegal and harmful and should be stopped? A: Yes, it is an illicit business but I would call on Karzai's government to stop hundreds of other illicit activities, which are more harmful to the Afghan people than poppies. We see authorities misusing their positions, we see millions of dollars being exploited in the name of Afghanistan's reconstruction and lots of other things, which should also be stopped. Q: What is your view on the poppy eradication campaign currently under way in your area? A: Well, it is the second time in the last three years that such a campaign has been undertaken in our region. But it looks like it will be useless. How they can stop it by just eradicating it? If the government continues with eradication but offers no assistance to replace the opium trade, the consequences for the nation as a whole will be very negative - it will turn the people against the government. Q: Why do you say that? A: Well, if you take a person's bread he will never like you. This is a very sensitive time for the central government. This is not the time to make people resent you. So, people will not vote for Karzai when their only experience of central government is having their poppy fields destroyed with no compensation or assistance to find alternative incomes. Q: But don't you feel partly responsible for the human misery and hundreds of thousands of addicts that result from the global opium trade? A: Fortunately, we do not have a lot of addicts around here despite hundreds of years of poppy cultivation in this region. But yes, it is sad when a human being in any part of the globe falls victim to drugs. I think those who have created these [heroin production] labs and who traffic drugs to consumers are responsible. Powerless people like farmers are always held responsible for those addicts and victims. But it is not us who takes the opium out of this country, and then further develop it into other types of illicit drugs. I say, close the borders, I say don't use it, I say reduce the demand in foreign countries and make the people aware that this is harmful. Money can also he harmful, but it depends how you use it. Poppies can also be used positively for medical drugs. Perhaps the opium should be used for positive purposes. Q: What will you do to earn a living and also support your soldiers when poppy cultivation is completely banned in the country? A: Well, I don't think that this can be stopped in the near future. However, when the government is able to solve the poppy issue then, inshallah, we will have many more private business opportunities and also there will be no need for having soldiers as Afghanistan will be peaceful and secure. Q: There are reports that local commanders like yourself force farmers to cultivate poppies at the expense of other crops. Is that true? A: Nobody round here is forced to grow poppy. People do it to survive, that's a fact. The district administrator, security commanders, judges and even religious leaders are poppy growers or are fathers, sons or brothers of poppy dealers. If the government cannot force people to stop cultivation, how can a small local commander force them to cultivate [something] if they don't wish to? Yes, some commanders support the crop, this is a common thing. If you cannot afford to buy a water pump, generator and other things for irrigating your poppy fields you will have to borrow money. And often commanders and people like them have money to loan these poor farmers.