Just Foreign Policy News
January 14, 2011
*Action: Center for Constitutional Rights: Support the Call for Fair Elections in Haiti
Ask the State Department to support fair elections in Haiti.
https://www.justforeignpolicy.org/haitinewelection
Tunisian Protests Move Hillary’s Line on Democratic Reform
As Secretary of State Clinton was delivering "scalding critique" on the need for reform to Arab leaders at a conference in Qatar, the New York Times notes that protests successfully demanding that the President of Tunisia resign "echoed loudly in the background." Could Clinton’s remarks presage a shift in U.S. policy? "Revolution by the Have-Nots has a way of inducing a moral revelation among the Haves," Saul Alinsky said, as Secretary Clinton may have noted when she was researching her senior thesis on Alinsky.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/tunisian-protests-move-hi_b_809314.html
Jesuit Refugee Service: Deporting Haitians into Peril – a Disturbing Policy
The recent decision by the U.S. government to resume the deportation of Haitians is wrong, and will put lives at risk while creating an additional problem for the maintenance of public order in Haiti, the Jesuit Refugee Service says.
http://jrsusa.org/news_detail?TN=NEWS-20110107091154
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Summary:
U.S./Top News
1) President Ben Ali fled Tunisia Friday after a month of street demonstrations, the New York Times reports. The fall of Ben Ali marks the first time in recent memory that widespread demonstrations have overthrown an Arab leader, the Times says. After reports that Ben Ali had fled, President Obama made strong statements in support of the protesters. Some demonstrators cited evidence of cables from the US Embassy released by WikiLeaks providing vividly detailed accounts of the first family’s self-enrichment and opulent lifestyle. Some demonstrators said they hoped that other Arab countries would follow their example. One protester carried a sign that said, in English, "Yes We Can," a reference to Obama, above "#sidibouzid," the name of a Twitter feed that has provided a forum for rallying protesters. On the other side his sign said, "Thank you Al Jazeera," in reference to the Arab news network’s month of extensive coverage.
2) Haitian President Preval officially received the report of an OAS team trying to solve an electoral deadlock, but he is unhappy with their recommendation that his preferred candidate be cut from the presidential runoff, AP reports. A source said he wanted revisions to the OAS document. [6 of the 7 members of the OAS team come from the US, France, and Canada, three countries that supported the 2004 coup and pushed for the creation of the UN military force – JFP.]
3) Gunmen clashed with police in a running street battle in Port-au-Prince on Friday, fueling fears of a resurgence of election-related violence, Reuters reports. At least one person was killed. The protest came amid widespread concerns that an experts’ report from the OAS on Haiti’s November 28 national elections could spur fresh outbreaks of unrest, Reuters says.
4) Lebanon’s pro-Western prime minister Hariri consulted with Turkey on Friday, AP reports. Turkish leaders were expected to propose holding an international conference to address the Lebanese crisis and advise Hariri to try to seek a consensus with Hezbollah, Turkish television reported.
5) Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister said Friday that dialogue is the only way out of the country’s political crisis, AP reports. President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, strongly condemned Hezbollah for quitting the government coalition. Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said Friday he would consult authorities in Iran, Syria and Qatar to try to find a solution to the crisis, the Anatolia news agency reported.
In the Netherlands, the international tribunal on the the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri held a hearing to discuss a former Lebanese security chief’s demand to see the evidence that led to his being jailed as a suspect for nearly four years. Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed, Lebanon’s former chief of general security, and three other pro-Syrian officers were freed from a Lebanese jail in April 2009 for lack of evidence. Al-Sayyed said the tribunal’s refusal to let him see "false witness" testimony he claims framed him is undermining the court’s credibility.
6) Defense Secretary Gates said the Obama administration would follow Tokyo’s lead in working to relocate a US air base on Okinawa, the New York Times reports. Gates said the administration did not want the Futenma issue to overshadow the countries’ overall security alliance. The softer tone is a departure from Gates’s visit to Tokyo in October 2009, when he pushed the Hatoyama government to honor an earlier deal to relocate the base on Okinawa, the Times says. Those pressure tactics backfired, creating resentment in the government that the US was trying to bully it. "We do understand that it is politically a complex matter in Japan," Gates said. "And we intend to follow the lead of the Japanese government in working with the people of Okinawa to take their interests and their concerns into account."
Israel/Palestine
7) Gaza’s Hamas rulers deployed forces near the Israeli border Thursday to try to prevent smaller militant groups from firing rockets, AP reports. Hamas leaders called together representatives of militant groups in the seaside strip and told them to hold their fire, according to a meeting participant, before Hamas sent its forces to the border area. Israeli leaders have insisted that they will not tolerate attacks from Gaza, but there was no sign of a military buildup on the border that would signal that another invasion is imminent.
Afghanistan
8) Afghanistan’s Finance Ministry said a delay by Iran in allowing fuel tankers into Afghanistan was "being solved," Reuters reports. The Ministry said the number of tankers coming across the border from Iran, carrying fuel from the UAE and Iraq, had fallen to about 15 a day from 70, but that this figure was gradually rising.
9) Afghan officials say the anti-drug campaign is flagging as opium prices soar, farmers are lured back to the lucrative crop and Afghanistan’s Western allies focus more narrowly on defeating the Taliban, the Washington Post reports. "The price of opium is now seven times higher than wheat, and there is a $58 billion demand for narcotics, so our farmers have no disincentive to cultivate poppy," said the deputy minister for counternarcotics.
Contents:
U.S./Top News
1) Prime Minister Claims Power in Tunisia as President Flees
David D. Kirkpatrick, New York Times, January 14, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/15/world/africa/15tunis.html
Tunis – President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia fled his country Friday after a month of street demonstrations against his authoritarian government and increasingly vociferous calls for his ouster. The prime minister went on state television Friday night to say he was temporarily in charge.
The president’s flight was confirmed by an Obama Administration official and the French Foreign Ministry, but it remained unclear where he had gone.
In his speech to the country, the Tunisian prime minister, Mohamed Ghannouchi, said, "As the president of the republic is unable to exercise his functions for the time being, I have assumed, starting now, the powers of the president."
[…] The fall of Mr. Ben Ali, who ruled with a heavy hand for more than two decades, marks the first time in recent memory that widespread demonstrations have overthrown an Arab leader.
The country, which is determinedly secular, is a close United States ally in the fight against terrorism. But on Friday, after reports that Mr. Ben Ali had fled, President Obama made strong statements in support of the protesters.
"I condemn and deplore the use of violence against citizens peacefully voicing their opinion in Tunisia, and I applaud the courage and dignity of the Tunisian people," the president said in a statement issued by the White House. "The United States stands with the entire international community in bearing witness to this brave and determined struggle for the universal rights that we must all uphold, and we will long remember the images of the Tunisian people seeking to make their voices heard."
[…] The prime minister’s announcement that he was leading an interim government followed an extraordinary and fast-moving back-and-forth between the government and the protesters, who became increasingly emboldened over the last month of demonstrations. After the president tried to placate the protesters Thursday with a suggestion that he would not run for re-election in 2014 and with promises that he would allow them to demonstrate, tens of thousands rushed into the streets of Tunis Friday to take advantage of his pledge by calling for his ouster.
But when the protesters led a funeral procession for a recently killed protester through the streets, the police finally moved to disperse the crowds, brutally beating demonstrators and raining tear gas on those who had gathered in front of the Interior Ministry. It is unclear if any demonstrators were shot Friday.
Mr. Ben Ali then announced that he had dismissed the Cabinet and would hold early legislative elections, but news agencies said the government also declared a state of emergency forbidding new demonstrations and warning that those who disobeyed would be shot. There were reports of gunfire downtown in the capital early Friday night, The Associated Press reported.
The reports that the president had left surfaced soon after that, as did the announcement by the prime minister. Mr. Ghannouchi did not say whether he would re-instate the Cabinet.
[…] Tunisia is far different from most neighboring Arab countries. There is little Islamist fervor there, it has a large middle class, and under Mr. Ben Ali and his predecessor, Habib Bourguiba, it has invested heavily in education. Not only are women not required to cover their heads, they enjoy a spectrum of civil rights, including free contraception, that are well beyond those in most countries in the region.
The educational investment has been something of a mixed blessing for the government, however, because it produced a generation of college educated young people who face bleak job prospects in Tunisia’s corruption-clogged economy.
The anti-government protests began a month ago when a college-educated street vendor burned himself to death in protest of his dismal prospects.
But the mounting protests quickly evolved from demands for more jobs to demands for political reforms, focusing mainly on the perceived corruption of the government and the self-enrichment of the ruling family. The protests were accelerated by the heavy use of social-media web sites like Facebook and Twitter by young people, who used the Internet to call for demonstrations and to circulate videos of each successive clash.
Some demonstrators also cited the evidence of cables from the United States Embassy in Tunisia that were released by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks providing vividly detailed accounts of the first family’s self-enrichment and opulent lifestyle.
On Friday morning, the crowd that gathered in the streets of Tunis was celebrating its confidence that change was at hand. "Victory, victory, until the government falls," protesters chanted.
"Bouazizi, you are a hero," they shouted, referring to the vendor who died. "The people of Tunisia have won."
[…] Some demonstrators said they hoped that other Arab countries would follow their example despite the many differences between their country and many of those nations, where popular discontent is often expressed in the language of Islam.
Zied Mhirsi, a 33-year-old doctor carried a sign that said, in English, "Yes We Can," a reference to President Barack Obama, above "#sidibouzid," the name of an online Twitter feed that has provided a forum for rallying protesters. On the other side his sign said, "Thank you Al Jazeera," in reference to the Arab news network’s month of extensive coverage.
[…]
2) Haiti president unhappily receives election report
Jonathan M. Katz, Associated Press, January 13, 2011
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2011/01/13/haiti_president_unhappily_receives_election_report/
Port-au-Prince, Haiti-Haitian leader Rene Preval on Thursday officially received the report of an international team trying to solve an electoral deadlock, but he is unhappy with their recommendation that his preferred candidate be cut from the presidential runoff vote.
A source with knowledge of internal discussions said the president wanted revisions to the document submitted by the Organization of American States. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because the report had not been made public.
The matter is extremely sensitive. Haiti’s political stability has been more fragile than ever since the Jan. 12, 2010, earthquake and subsequent cholera epidemic. The candidates are vying for the chance to oversee billions of dollars in reconstruction aid.
Rioting broke out across the country when preliminary results from the Nov. 28 first-round election were announced in December that indicated the runoff would be between former first lady Mirlande Manigat and Preval’s candidate, state-run construction company chief Jude Celestin.
[…] The report’s contents are already widely known. A draft copy was obtained by The Associated Press on Monday. A separately obtained draft was later posted on the internet by Washington-based think tank Center for Economic and Policy Research.
Officials have confirmed that the conclusions did not change before being presented to the president.
The team of electoral, technical and statistical experts from the United States, France, Canada, Jamaica and the OAS concluded that tens of thousands more votes than previously thought should be discarded because polling-place officials did not follow procedures or because of signs that tally sheets were altered.
[6 of the 7 on the OAS team were from the US, France, and Canada – three countries that backed the coup in 2004, and pushed for the creation of the UN military force – JFP.]
Based on new calculations, they said the runoff should pit Manigat against Martelly instead.
The Center for Economic and Policy Research, a left-leaning think tank in Washington, said the OAS report was flawed and the election should be thrown out anyway because problems were too widespread and the party of still-popular ousted former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide unfairly excluded. "This report can’t salvage an election that was illegitimate," it said.
[…]
3) Haiti slum clash stokes unrest fears, one killed
Joseph Guyler Delva, Reuters, Fri Jan 14, 12:55 pm ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110114/wl_nm/us_haiti_elections_3
Port-au-Prince – Gunmen clashed with police in a running street battle in a slum district of Haiti’s capital on Friday, fueling fears of a resurgence of the election-related violence that hit the poor Caribbean nation last month.
At least one person was killed and several were arrested after protesters used burning tires to erect barricades across streets in Martissant, on the city’s south side, Port-au-Prince Police Commissioner Michaelange Gedeon told Reuters. "They had set up barricades and fired off rounds of gunshots when we arrived. They started shooting at us. One of them was killed in a shootout with the police," Gedeon said.
He said it was not immediately clear what triggered the protest. But it came amid widespread concerns that an experts’ report from the Organization of American States (OAS), which challenges the official results of Haiti’s November 28 national elections, could spur fresh outbreaks of unrest.
[…]
4) Lebanon’s caretaker PM seeks support
Selcan Hacaoglu, Associated Press, January 14, 2011
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2011/01/14/lebanons_caretaker_pm_seeks_support/
Ankara, Turkey – Lebanon’s pro-Western prime minister consulted with regional power Turkey on Friday as part of efforts to rally international support after the Shiite militant group Hezbollah brought down the Lebanese government.
Saad Hariri, having met with President Barack Obama in Washington and stopped in France en route to Turkey, was expected to discuss steps to solve the government crisis with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Hariri left Turkey after the meeting, and neither he nor Turkish authorities made any statement.
Lebanon’s Hezbollah-led alliance quit the government Wednesday, causing it to collapse. The crisis was the climax of long-simmering tensions over the U.N. tribunal investigating the 2005 assassination of Hariri’s father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The tribunal is widely expected to indict members of Hezbollah soon, which many fear could rekindle violence in the tiny nation plagued for decades by war and civil strife. Hezbollah denounces the Netherlands-based tribunal as a conspiracy by the U.S. and Israel. It had demanded Hariri reject the tribunal’s findings even before they came out, but Hariri has refused to break cooperation with the court and its investigations.
Turkish leaders are expected to propose holding an international conference to address the crisis and advise Hariri to try to seek a consensus with Hezbollah, private NTV television said Friday.
[…] Turkey, which has built closer ties with Lebanon since participating in the Lebanon peacekeeping force after the 2006 Hezbollah-Israel war in southern Lebanon, believes it could play a role in returning stability to the region. "The stability of Lebanon is important for the stability of the region," the Anatolia news agency quoted Turkey’s Foreign Minister Davutoglu as saying on Thursday. "We regard all Lebanese as Turkey’s friends, regardless of their political view, sect or religion."
The Turkish prime minister’s vociferous criticism of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians has sharply raised his profile in the Islamic world.
[…]
5) Hariri back in Beirut, urges dialogue
Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press, Fri Jan 14, 3:40 pm ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110114/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_politics
Beirut – Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister said Friday that dialogue is the only way out of the country’s political crisis after a Hezbollah-led coalition toppled his Western-backed government.
Saad Hariri, who returned to Lebanon on Friday, has been trying to rally support in the U.S., France and Turkey since ministers allied to the Shiite militant group resigned on Wednesday, bringing down his government while he was in Washington meeting with President Barack Obama.
"There is no alternative to dialogue," Hariri told reporters Friday after meeting with President Michel Suleiman.
[…] In an effort to ease tensions that some fear could ignite sectarian violence, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut urged all political factions to "remain calm and exercise restraint at this critical time."
In Washington, President Barack Obama’s national security adviser, Tom Donilon, strongly condemned Hezbollah for quitting the coalition, and the White House promised to help Lebanon peacefully reconstitute a government.
Hariri stopped in France and Turkey on his way back to Lebanon as part of his efforts to rally international support. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday after meeting with Hariri that he would consult authorities in Iran, Syria and Qatar on Friday to try to find a solution to the crisis, the Anatolia news agency reported.
[…] Hariri will stay on in a caretaker role while a new government is formed.
Oussama Saad, a Sunni politician who is a Hezbollah ally and potential candidate, called for a new prime minister who would "defend the resistance."
"We cannot accept Hariri’s return to the post of prime minister," he said Friday. "We call for a new prime minister who does not draw strength from the outside against the people of his country, and one who doesn’t conspire against the resistance."
[…] In the Netherlands, the tribunal was holding a public hearing Friday to discuss a former Lebanese security chief’s demand to see the evidence that led to his being jailed as a suspect for nearly four years. Maj. Gen. Jamil al-Sayyed, Lebanon’s former chief of general security, and three other pro-Syrian officers were freed from a Lebanese jail in April 2009 for lack of evidence. Al-Sayyed said the tribunal’s refusal to let him see "false witness" testimony he claims framed him is undermining the court’s credibility.
6) Gates Signals U.S. Is Flexible on Moving Air Base in Japan
Martin Fackler and Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times, January 13, 2011
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/world/asia/14military.html
Tokyo – Striking a conciliatory tone on an issue that has divided Japan and the United States, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Thursday that the Obama administration would follow Tokyo’s lead in working to relocate an American air base on Okinawa.
During talks with Japanese leaders in Tokyo, Mr. Gates said he also discussed a sophisticated new antimissile system that the United States is jointly developing with the Japanese, and the two nations’ response to North Korea’s recent military provocations against the South.
But a top item on the agenda was the relocation of the United States Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, an emotional issue here that drove an uncharacteristic wedge between the allies last year when the prime minister at the time, Yukio Hatoyama, wavered on whether to keep the base on Okinawa.
While the two nations finally agreed in May to relocate the noisy helicopter base to a less populated part of Okinawa by 2014, local resistance has made that time frame look increasingly unrealistic.
On Thursday, Mr. Gates said the administration did not want the Futenma issue to overshadow the countries’ overall security alliance, which last year reached its 50th anniversary. He signaled that the United States was willing to be flexible in allowing Tokyo to resolve the domestic political resistance to the relocation plan.
"We do understand that it is politically a complex matter in Japan," he said after meeting Defense Minister Toshimi Kitazawa. "And we intend to follow the lead of the Japanese government in working with the people of Okinawa to take their interests and their concerns into account."
The softer tone is a departure from Mr. Gates’s visit to Tokyo in October 2009, when he pushed Mr. Hatoyama’s fledgling government to honor an earlier deal to relocate the base on Okinawa. Those pressure tactics backfired, creating resentment in the government that the United States was trying to bully it.
[…]
Israel/Palestine
7) Hamas deploys forces to stop Gaza rocket fire
Ibrahim Barzak, Associated Press, Thursday, January 13, 2011; 2:09 PM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/13/AR2011011301912.html
Gaza City, Gaza Strip – Gaza’s Hamas rulers deployed forces near the Israeli border Thursday to try to prevent smaller militant groups from firing rockets, a sign that the movement fears Israeli retaliation for the escalating barrages from the Palestinian territory.
Hamas leaders called together representatives of militant groups in the seaside strip and told them to hold their fire, according to a meeting participant, before Hamas sent its forces to the border area.
The Israeli military says at least 25 rockets and mortar shells have exploded in Israel’s south this month. Several Israelis have been wounded, one seriously. Israel has been hitting back for each salvo with airstrikes aimed at weapons storage facilities and factories, as well as smuggling tunnels under the Gaza-Egypt border.
The Islamic militant group appears concerned about triggering another large-scale Israeli military campaign similar to a three-week operation two years ago.
An unwritten cease-fire has been in effect since then, but the frequency of rocket attacks has been creeping upward in recent weeks.
Israel holds Hamas responsible for all violence originating in Gaza, though Hamas blames smaller groups for the recent rocket fire. Those groups, like Islamic Jihad and Popular Resistance Committees, have varying degrees of allegiance to Hamas.
This week, an Israeli airstrike killed an Islamic Jihad militant on a motorcycle, in a rare targeted killing.
Hamas assembled the militant groups late Wednesday after Egypt warned the Gaza’s rulers that Israel was serious about bringing the rocket fire to an end, according to the participant, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was closed.
He quoted Hamas strongman Mahmoud Zahar as warning them that they were "playing with fire."
[…] Israeli leaders have insisted that they will not tolerate attacks from Gaza, but there was no sign of a military buildup on the border that would signal that another invasion is imminent.
[…]
Afghanistan
8) Afghanistan says Iran fuel delay "being solved"
Hamid Shalizi and Jonathon Burch, Reuters, 12 Jan 2011
http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/afghanistan-says-iran-fuel-delay-being-solved
Kabul – A delay by Iran in allowing fuel tankers into Afghanistan was costing Afghan companies about $500,000 a day, but the month-long delay has not strained political ties, the country’s Finance Ministry said on Wednesday.
Some 1,900 tankers, with fuel worth about $15 million, were backed up in Iran after the country limited the number of trucks it was allowing to cross the border into Afghanistan to a trickle, the independent Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industries said.
But Aziz Shams, a ministry spokesman, said the slowdown would not hurt the economy because most of Afghanistan’s fuel came through Pakistan.
"The issue is being solved now. It is not a major problem for us," said Shams, adding that Iran had not given Afghanistan any explanation for why it had held up the fuel tankers.
Shams also said the issue would not hurt the relations between the neighbours in one of the region’s most volatile areas.
Shams said the number of tankers coming across the border from Iran, carrying fuel from the United Arab Emirates and Iraq, had fallen to about 15 a day from 70, but that this figure was gradually rising.
Iran has said the slowdown was due to "technical problems" related to the reduction of Iranian fuel subsidies and that the issue was now being solved.
The Afghan Chamber of Commerce and Industries said it was told by Iranian officials the tankers were delayed because Tehran believed the fuel was destined for U.S. and NATO forces, which are fighting a resilient insurgency in Afghanistan.
[…] While the chamber said Afghan fuel prices had risen up to 35 percent in some provinces, other officials have reported smaller price increases of between 12-15 percent. Drivers in Kabul said there had been only a minimal increase.
9) Success Of Afghan Drug War Is Waning
As opium prices soar and allies focus on Taliban, Afghan drug war stumbles
Pamela Constable, Washington Post, Friday, January 14, 2011; 12:00 AM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/13/AR2011011306738.html
Kabul – After several years of steady progress in curbing opium poppy cultivation and cracking down on drug smugglers, Afghan officials say the anti-drug campaign is flagging as opium prices soar, farmers are lured back to the lucrative crop and Afghanistan’s Western allies focus more narrowly on defeating the Taliban.
That combination adds a potentially destabilizing factor to Afghanistan at a time when the United States is desperate to show progress in a war now into its 10th year. The country’s Taliban insurgency and the drug trade flourish in the same lawless terrain, and are often mutually reinforcing. But Afghan officials say the opium problem is not receiving the focus it deserves from Western powers.
"The price of opium is now seven times higher than wheat, and there is a $58 billion demand for narcotics, so our farmers have no disincentive to cultivate poppy," said Mohammed Azhar, deputy minister for counternarcotics. "We have gotten a lot of help, but it is not enough. Afghanistan is still producing 85 percent of the opium in the world, and it is still a dark stain on our name."
International attention to Afghanistan’s drug problem has waxed and waned over the course of the war, often as a result of shifts in Western priorities as elected governments have changed and conflict with Islamist insurgents has intensified.
In the first several years after the fall of the Taliban in late 2001, U.S.-led policy was military-driven and drugs were not seen as a critical issue. Poppy cultivation, once banned by the Taliban, surged. By 2004, the U.S. and British governments stepped in with programs to eradicate poppy, encourage farmers to grow other crops and train Afghan police and prosecutors in how to combat drug trafficking.
Those efforts met with mixed success. Afghanistan eliminated poppy cultivation in 20 of 34 provinces, but it continued to flourish in the south and west, where the insurgency was strongest. Anti-drug police arrested hundreds of smugglers, but few major traffickers were caught and some were released under high-level political pressure. Insecurity and Taliban threats made some alternative crop programs hard to carry out.
Now, Afghan officials say, the latest NATO push to wipe out the Taliban leadership and focus on military goals has once again led to a reduced international interest in the drug war.
According to a U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime report released in September, the value of Afghan opium skyrocketed from $29 per pound in 2009 to $77 per pound in 2010, fueling fears that production levels will soon follow upward. Although the amount of land devoted to growing poppies has remained the same over the past year – about 304,000 acres – the number of families producing the crop has grown. In all, more than 1.5 million Afghans depend on the sale of drugs for their livelihoods.
[…] In Kabul, the most visible sign of the flagging war on drugs is the burgeoning population of addicts living under bridges and overpasses. While the use of hashish and opium is a traditional part of Afghan society, experts say the introduction of heroin – especially by exiles returning from Iran – has brought crime, homelessness, disease and mental illness to the drug culture.
"When we started here in 2002, it was hard to find a single drug user on the streets of Kabul. Now there are close to 1 million all over the country," said Tariq Suliman, a doctor and the director of the Nejat Center, a program for addicts in Kabul. "This is a population that is using dangerous drugs, getting thrown out of their jobs and families, and suffering from social stigma."
[…]
–
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