| | AP Interview: Former Afghan customs chief says Afghanistan losing war against drugs The Associated Press
01/29/2007
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LONDON: A Pakistani man sewed opium into the beads of a tapestry. An Afghan taped drug bags to his body. A Chinese woman tucked narcotics into hollowed heels.
Afghan Gen. Aminullah Amarkhil arrested them all ? and he says that has been the source of all his problems.
Until October, Amarkhil was a top customs official in the world's largest opium producer, responsible for halting the flow of drugs through Afghanistan's main airport. Now he is seeking asylum in London, claiming his life is in danger from drug lords who pressured the government to fire him amid corruption charges.
"If I was corrupt I wouldn't be here now," Amarkhil told The Associated Press as he sat huddled by a space heater in a cramped one-room apartment in a west London suburb. "If I accepted money the smugglers offered me, I would be a very rich man today. One thing is clear: I am here because I didn't deal with them."
Though Western backers of President Hamid Karzai's government have pumped hundreds of millions of aid into anti-drugs programs, corruption at every level of government has made it impossible to make significant inroads, experts say.
LONDON: A Pakistani man sewed opium into the beads of a tapestry. An Afghan taped drug bags to his body. A Chinese woman tucked narcotics into hollowed heels.
Afghan Gen. Aminullah Amarkhil arrested them all ? and he says that has been the source of all his problems.
Until October, Amarkhil was a top customs official in the world's largest opium producer, responsible for halting the flow of drugs through Afghanistan's main airport. Now he is seeking asylum in London, claiming his life is in danger from drug lords who pressured the government to fire him amid corruption charges.
"If I was corrupt I wouldn't be here now," Amarkhil told The Associated Press as he sat huddled by a space heater in a cramped one-room apartment in a west London suburb. "If I accepted money the smugglers offered me, I would be a very rich man today. One thing is clear: I am here because I didn't deal with them."
Though Western backers of President Hamid Karzai's government have pumped hundreds of millions of aid into anti-drugs programs, corruption at every level of government has made it impossible to make significant inroads, experts say.
U.S. officials have said that some proceeds from the drug trade go to fund the growing Taliban-led insurgency against Afghan government and foreign troops in the country.
"Up to 80 percent of the police is completely corrupt," said Antonio Giustozzi an expert on Afghanistan at the London School of Economics. "The climate there is very poisonous and I don't think there is anybody above suspicion."
Zemerai Bashary, a spokesman for Afghanistan's Interior Ministry denied that such a high percentage of the police force was corrupt and said reforms were moving forward.
"After 23 years of war in the country, it leaves its marks in institutions. We are rebuilding the police," he said.
Experts say the culture of corruption is deeply enmeshed in Afghan society. Giustozzi said police often cooperated with ? and in some areas even controlled ? the drug trade. The government denies it.
"There's a need for a much smarter strategy," said William Byrd, the co-author of a new U.N. report on Afghanistan's drug industry. "There's no use devising a counter-narcotics policy that will work perfectly in an environment where there is no corruption, when you know there is corruption."
"If corrupt people get appointed it's likely that those trying to do something against the drug trade will find it difficult to keep their jobs," Byrd said.
Last year, Afghanistan had a record opium crop, producing enough to make 670 tons of heroin, even more than the world's addicts consume annually.
Amarkhil spent 18 months as the customs chief at Kabul International Airport. Far from the modern world of X-ray machines and drug-trained dogs, officials at the Kabul airport often worked without even the basics, like electricity.
"I had no machines, no scanners, not even any (sniffer) dogs. All I had was my experience, my spies and Allah," he said, pointing his finger to the sky.
Amarkhil claims he was so successful he upset druglords tied to corrupt government officials, who in turn, accused him of corruption. Deputy Attorney General Mohammad Aloko said the general fled rather than face scrutiny; Amarkhil said he had been questioned and released, but left fearing death threats.
"He was scared because we had strong evidence for what he was accused," Aloko said. "We are trying to bring him back to the country with the help of Interpol."
Britain's Home Office and its Serious Organized Crime Agency would not confirm or deny receiving any extradition requests.
Amarkhil disputes the allegations, saying the charges were trumped up by officials in the pay of drug kingpins. The 44-year-old father of seven earned a salary of US$500 (€385) a month ? though he said he was routinely offered figures ranging from US$2,000 (€1,500) to $5,000 (€3,800) by traffickers to let their cargo through.
A senior Western official in Kabul, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the matter, described Amarkhil as "fairly aggressive" in carrying out his duties. He said the alleged corruption was low-level ? involving such things as visas and parking fees.
Amarkhil said he can prove his claim that high-placed officials allow drug runners to operate brazenly. From a small, dark suitcase placed on top of a wooden cupboard, the former customs officer brought out videotapes describing dates and times of some of his most successful busts.
The videotapes show smugglers being taken into a room to be questioned, as their stash of drugs was laid before them. Dozens of nationalities were represented: Pakistani men with long beards, Thai women, Chinese girls and Nigerian businessmen.
Amarkhil's personal favorite was the video of an Afghan man caught trying to conceal seven kilograms (14 pounds) of heroin, expanding his waistline substantially. Then again there is the woman caught with a kilogram (two pounds) of heroin, who threatened Amarkhil with retaliation from "friends in high places." She was freed in less than a month, Amarkhil said.
Corruption in the country's central institutions not only stymies the fight against drugs ahead of this year's upcoming harvest, but also poses an increased risk to the 30,000-strong NATO force battling the Taliban-led insurgency, Amarkhil said.
"If this system (gets worse) the people who are not in government, like the Taliban, will get stronger and create more problems for Afghanistan. And also the casualties of the ... NATO soldiers will be more and more," he said.
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