| Afghanistan risks becoming narco-mafia state-minister Reuters
09/12/2003
By Simon Denyer
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KABUL - Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai said on Friday his country could become a narco-mafia state unless the world honoured its promises of help. Ghani said hopes had been raised when the hardline Taliban were forced from power in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks two years ago, but now Afghanistan was at a crossroads as it waited for the world to deliver. "We have three possibilities. One is a narco-mafia state. The criminalised economy would expand from drugs to mining and to other areas," Ghani told Reuters in an interview. Another possibility, if Afghanistan did not get the money and international support it needed, was the country could lurch from one crisis to another, he said. Either way, the cost to the West could ultimately be much higher than the cost of helping the country now. But time was running out, he said. "Expectations should not have been raised to that extent," he said, referring to enthusiastic pledges of aid in the weeks after the late 2001 fall of the Taliban. "But now the task is to deliver on steady progress to improve the lives of ordinary people." Ghani welcomed U.S. President George W. Bush's request to Congress on Sunday for a further $800 million to support Afghan reconstruction, but said the country needed $30 billion in foreign aid over five years to become self-sufficient. "It is an open moment in history," he said. "It is very rare in history to have an open moment...but we will not be in this open moment for too long because other forces will crystallise." "This open moment is of world significance, not just Afghan or regional significance," he said. "If we really succeed in creating a democratic and accountable governance system, it would give the lie to the 'clash of civilisations'. "It would put the Muslim world's relationship with the West on a completely different course," he said. Ghani said remnants of the hardline Taliban militia were pouring across the border from neighbouring Pakistan, killing aid workers and deminers and trying to sabotage the reconstruction effort. OPIUM PRODUCTION BOOMING At the same time opium cultivation for the production of heroin was booming, and drug money was leading to the "privatisation of violence", he said. "The threat of terrorism is being dealt with," he said. "But the threat that is emanating from drugs is not being dealt with. "A comprehensive aid package for drug elimination has not been forthcoming," he said. "We must take a radical approach to drug elimination because drugs destroy all possibility of a democratic culture. It would undermine all attempts at good governance, eventually it would lead again to terror. We suspect there are linkages." There are 11,500 American and allied soldiers in Afghanistan trying to track down remnants of the Taliban and their allies from Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network. Bush also requested over $80 billion for Iraq on Sunday, but Ghani rejected comparisons between the two countries. "What is important is not to create competition, but to understand each country on its own merits," he said. "If the international community has two major problems on its hands, it should have the capability to deal with both creatively, constructively and in a sustainable manner." The erudite Ghani, a former World Bank official, is respected by Western diplomats as one of Afghanistan's leading reformers. He said he hoped fellow members of the cabinet would also play their role in pushing through the kind of reforms needed before elections due in the middle of next year. "The Afghan nation expects united and decisive action," he said. "It would not deal kindly with any of us who fail to respond to their aspirations. They will hold us accountable." Top of the agenda are reforms of the Ministry of Defence and security services, where a mainly ethnic Tajik faction led by Vice President Mohammad Qasim Fahim is under pressure to share power with other factions and ethnic groups. The reforms are seen as crucial to building trust between Afghan factions and a prerequisite for the long-delayed process of disarming and demobilising militia groups. ----------------------------------------------- Related Articles:
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