Taliban squads destroy poppy crops in the province of Zemul – Ansa
“Now comes the Taliban narco-state,” wrote analyst Elaine Shannon in the Washington Post on August 17, 2021. Two days earlier the former Koranic students had returned to the presidential palace in Kabul, putting an end to twenty years of a pro-Western Republic . Immediately, the main international media feared the risk that the fundamentalists would increase the already thriving opium production to make up for the cut in aid. Taxes extorted from poppy farmers had been a lucrative source of funding during the conflict. Having regained power, however, the Taliban decided to change their strategy. In April 2022 they imposed the ban, which became operational in the following autumn, the period of new sowing. Their “special teams” made sure, with an iron fist, that the order did not remain on paper.
After almost three years of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, the poppy fields have thus practically disappeared. This was certified by the UN Office against Drugs and Crime (UNODC).. In the traditional annual report, published today, a 95 percent drop in harvests is recorded. Since the country had previously ensured more than 80 percent of global supply, this has collapsed by 74 percent in the course of twelve months.
Part of the production moved to neighboring Myanmar, where there was a simultaneous increase of 36 percent, also favored by the political chaos due to the revolt in large regions against the coup junta. In the short term, however, it is impossible to transfer an extension of plantations of over 230 thousand hectares across the border. The 2023, then, has seen a quarter of the usual amount of opium. The implications are shaping up to be disruptive on multiple levels.. First, on a local scale, millions of Afghan farmers, already in poverty after more than half a century of war, found themselves without their main source of income.
The Institute for Peace, an independent research center, has quantified the losses at almost one billion euros. Opium accounted for a third of the national agricultural production. In some regions, however, such as Helmand, Kandahar, Farah and Nangarhar, the entire economy was built around poppies. And it collapsed. Crushing the lives of millions of women and men. On a global level, then, the shortage of opium caused the prices of heroin to increase fivefold, enriching those in the trafficking networks who had taken the precaution of stockpiling. The latter exist and are huge, as the UNODC underlines: the proof is that in Europe, the main Afghan drug market, the white powder continues to circulate. At least for now.
In the near future, however, the landscape is set to change. And not for the better. According to UN experts, heroin could be replaced with synthetic opioids, which are cheaper and more dangerous, such as Fentanyl – 50 times more lethal – or nitacenes., even more powerful. Finally, there is a question that is anything but secondary. Why did the Taliban declare war on opium, giving up a key revenue at a time of acute crisis due to international isolation? International isolation is precisely the key to deciphering the enigma.
The official certification of the dismantling of the opium fields by the UN comes four days after the meeting in Doha, the first between representatives of the United Nations and a delegation of Taliban. An unprecedented and controversial fact. Formally no state recognizes the Emirate, created after the withdrawal of US and NATO forces. For this reason, since its establishment, Washington has frozen the seven billion dollars of Republic funds deposited in US banks. Half of it is still blocked. Faced with the outbreak of an unprecedented humanitarian emergency – with two thirds of the population starving – the UN has provided seven billion dollars – the same as the frozen amount – in humanitarian assistance. A partly forced choice to avoid making citizens pay for the choices of the fundamentalist government. In substance – although the form is less dramatic – the “new” Emirate resembles the “old” one of Mullah Omar. The Taliban occupied all positions of power, excluding the opposition, minorities and women. The latter, in reality, are not cut off from the political arena alone. Despite the promises of 2021, the regime has issued a series of measures that prevent them from practicing a series of professions, traveling alone for more than 75 kilometers and, above all, from studying after primary school.
Unacceptable measures in the eyes of the international community which places women’s rights as a red line for a possible opening towards the Emirate. This is why Sunday’s Doha meeting sparked so much controversy. At the first UN meeting on Afghanistan, in May 2023, the Taliban were not invited. Last February, however, they were the ones who canceled the second summit, at the last minute, due to the presence of groups for the defense of women’s rights. This time the latter will not be there, no delegate will participate in the work and the women’s issue will not be the subject of the discussions.
Many Afghan civil society organizations and international activists have called “betrayal” by the United Nations. Furthermore, Doha evokes in public opinion the tragic memory of the agreement reached with the Taliban by the Trump administration behind the back of the Republican government and overlooking the women’s issue. Roza Otunbayeva, UN special envoy for Afghanistan, has categorically ruled out that this is a failure. “It’s a first step to start talking to each other.” The dossiers to be examined will therefore focus on the economic crisis, the post-war period, regional stability and drug trafficking. The latter is a “fundamental” theme, according to UN undersecretary Rosemary DiCarlo. The Taliban know this. Hence the anxiety of having results to bring to the table. Women, once again, can wait.
