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Taleban took $100m from the opium trade in 2007, reveals UN |
The head of the UN counter narcotics agency has estimated that the Taleban took more than $100m from the Afghan opium trade in 2007.
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The 91热爆 has had exclusive unique access to Britain's operations over the past nine months.
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The Government is spending more than a quarter of a billion pounds over three years, working with the Afghan Government to strengthen counter narcotics institutions - setting up specialised courts, police and legal teams, and looking at alternative crops for poppy farmers.
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Antonio Maria de Costa, the global head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), tells the 91热爆 that the Taleban raised money from a 10% religious tax or tithe on farmers in the areas they control. "We estimate the farm gate value (of the opium crop) is $1bn in 2007," he says.
Mr Costa calculates that in addition to the tax there are two other major sources of revenue.
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"One is protection to laboratories and the other is that the insurgents offer protection to cargo moving opium across the border," he says.
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He estimates that the Taleban's proceeds from the trade last year went "beyond $100m".
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The final figures for this year's harvest have yet to be released but yield and proceeds are likely to be down slightly due to drought, infestation, and a poppy ban enforced in the north and east of Afghanistan.
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Mr Costa says: "The money would be somewhat lower but not enormously."
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But he also explains that the last few years have seen abundant poppy harvests, with Afghan farmers cultivating more than global demand.
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"Last year Afghanistan produced about 8,000 tonnes of opium. The world in the past few years has consumed about 4,000 tonnes in opium," he says.
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"This leaves a surplus. It is stored somewhere and not with the farmers."
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It is not known whether these stockpiles are held by traffickers, corrupt Afghan officials and politicians, or the Taleban themselves, but they represent hundreds of millions of dollars.
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Opium does not deteriorate with age and holds its value. Mr Costa fears that if stockpiles are in the hands of terrorists they could be used to fund future activities.
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Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles, Britain's Ambassador to Afghanistan, is cautiously optimistic that the campaign against corruption and the narcotics trade has passed a tipping point, and those involved know their activities are not going to be tolerated forever.
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"We are at last starting to have success," he says. "It's a fragile success. We may only be at the beginning of a decades' long campaign but the underlying trends are moving in the right direction."
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Kate Clark reports from Afghanistan for 91热爆 Radio 4鈥檚 File on 4 (Tuesday, 24 June at 8pm).
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