OPIUM production in Afghanistan will contribute $US500 million ($770 million) to drug lords and the Taliban this year and has increased in the south - where Australia's troops are based - despite a drop across the rest of the country, a United Nations report says.
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The report, to be released today by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, says opium production has dropped 6 per cent across the country this year and has been eradicated from 18 of 34 provinces. Production has been restricted almost exclusively to the troubled southern provinces, including Oruzgan, where Australia's 1000-plus troops are based and where production rose 26 per cent.
The report says the rises in the south indicate the continued strength of the Taliban which - along with drug lords and corrupt authorities - imposes a tax, or ushr, for protecting opium farmers and traffickers.
Afghanistan supplies 90 per cent of the world's opium - and production has risen in recent years in tandem with the growing Taliban insurgency.
"By year end, warlords, drug lords and insurgents will have extracted almost half a billion dollars of tax revenue from drug farming, production and trafficking," said the executive director of the UNODC, Antonio Maria Costa.
"Not surprisingly the insurgents' war machine has proven so resilient, despite the heavy pounding by Afghan and allied forces.
"Drug production and trafficking would be slowed by destroying high-value targets like drug markets, labs and convoys - which the Afghan army, backed by NATO, are starting to do."
The widespread cultivation of opium has presented a dilemma for international forces, which have sought to pressure the Afghan Government to curb production but are mindful that depriving farmers of their livelihood could increase support for the Taliban.
A Defence Force spokesman said yesterday Australian troops were not allowed to eradicate opium crops and were only able to assist indirectly by training Afghan forces and assisting with reconstruction. "Eradication efforts in Afghanistan are carried out by an Afghan-led force after careful consultation with local authorities," said the spokesman.
"The ADF is authorised to act in a supporting role to assist Afghan-led counter-narcotics operations. This includes, for example, the provision of logistics and medical support."
The UN report says Afghan production has exceeded world demand, which has prompted the Taliban to hoard stockpiles and await a price increase.
