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‘Give me a break’ on Afghan drugs: general to NATO

* NATO supreme commander for Europe says drugs bring in $100m to Taliban every year

BRUSSELS: NATO’s top operations commander hit out on Monday at allies resisting his call for the alliance to use more aggressive tactics against the Afghan drug production.

“We still have a handful of nations who have not listened to the argument but are countering with questions that have been answered over and over again,” NATO Supreme Commander for Europe General John Craddock told a seminar in Brussels.

The United States general rejected the idea that his proposal would worsen the Taliban insurgency and stressed it would not involve targeting farmers’ crops.

“This is not about eradication. The fear that this will make the Taliban angrier at us? Give me a break! What are these suicide bombs and IEDs, these terrorist attacks, all about? How can it be any worse?” he said.

$100 million: Craddock quoted United Nations estimates that the trade in drugs was bringing in about $100 million every year to the Taliban and said the trade also fuelled corruption in the Afghan government. “If we can take away the wherewithal that they can build these bombs, the ability to buy the materiel and pay the bomb maker, the ability to buy the bullets and pay the trigger puller, isn’t that a good thing?” he said.

“I will not rest until I have exhausted every avenue to convince the political leaders of NATO that this is a moral requirement to protect their forces.”

NATO allies have been considering Craddock’s call for the alliance to take a more direct role in counter-narcotics operations by targeting drug labs and trafficking facilities.

Germany’s mandate for its troops specifically prevents them taking part in counter-narcotics due to concerns this could increase risks to its soldiers in Afghanistan.

Britain: Britain, which has the lead role in the international anti-drug effort in Afghanistan, has expressed concern about the risk of civilian casualties, which have generated ill feelings towards foreign forces.

Craddock told Reuters he was confident a change in policy would eventually be achieved, hopefully ‘sooner rather than later’.

Afghanistan broke all records and produced 93 percent of the world’s opium in 2007, although production fell slightly this year to 7,700 tonnes from a previous 8,200 tonnes. reuters

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