Afghanistan: Officials Fired for Drug Links

By Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi in Mazar-e-Sharif (ARR No. 200, 30-Jan-06)
In a case that could have wide repercussions for Afghanistan’s battle against corruption, five government officials in the Chamtal district in the northern province of Balkh have been dismissed for alleged involvement in the drug trade.

This is the first time the government has taken action against its own, and the sackings are being billed as the start of a general anti-corruption drive.

The sacked officials include the district government head, the chief of police, the chief of security, the chief of staff and the prosecutor. They were dismissed from their posts in mid-January and handed over to the provincial prosecutor’s office for interrogation.

The charges against them include accepting bribes from opium poppy farmers in order to halt the eradication process now under way in the north.

Afghanistan is the world’s largest supplier of opium, the raw material used to produce heroin. A 2004 United Nations study estimating that the country accounted for close to 90 per cent of the world’s heroin supply prompted a major eradication effort, and in 2005 the total area under cultivation was reduced by over 20 per cent.

The crackdown in Balkh began in November, after Muhibullah Ludin, an official with the counter-narcotics ministry in the northern provinces, found that eradication efforts there were lagging.

Provincial officials gave farmers ten days to destroy their poppy crops. Once the deadline had passed, they began to arrest violators, and since early November, nearly 100 farmers have been arrested and jailed.

But 60 of those imprisoned have since been released, with the provincial head claiming that this was the result of bribes paid to district officials.

“Some officials are filling their pockets by taking advantage of the process,” said Balkh governor Atta Mohammad Nur.

Atta Mohammad added that he is determined to crack down on poppy cultivation and will dismiss any government officials who are implicated in the narcotics trade.

"I will prevent the expansion of poppy cultivation this year with all the means at my disposal,” he said.

Abdul Ghafar Lal Purwal, head of the interrogation department at the Balkh province prosecutor's office, told IWPR that any officials found to be involved in drug trafficking would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

“These people are being interrogated, and if the allegations on them are proved, they will be handed over to the courts,” he said.

The accused officials are still free on bail. But they are required to come to the prosecutor’s office daily for questioning.

Zabiullah Akhtari, a senior government official in Balkh, told IWPR that the operation in Chamtal was just the beginning.

“There are investigations ongoing in all 14 districts of the province,” he said, “We have suspicions about officials in two of them. Any officials implicated in the narcotics trade will be dismissed.”

The five officials currently under investigation declined to be interviewed by IWPR.

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