ANKARA
By Betul Yuruk
With uncertainty about whether NATO-led forces in Afghanistan will be staying beyond 2014 the country, which is the world's top opium producer, needs international support in its struggle against opium cultivation according to the Afghan ambassador to Turkey.
Afghanistan’s drug production hit a high record in 2013, according to a U.N. report.
"Afghanistan has always been mentioned with drugs. But many of the ingredients are not grown in Afghanistan. They come from outside the borders of Afghanistan," Afghanistan's Ambassador to Turkey, Amanullah Jayhoon, told AA.
Despite years of efforts to eradicate the cultivation of opium, the area under cultivation rose to 209,000 hectares in 2013 from last year’s total of 154,000 hectares, the U.N. report said.
"There is an international mafia of smugglers and there is a lot of pressure for opium cultivation and it creates insecurity," he said. "We (the Afghan government) want to eradicate it as well as finding an alternative for farmers to cultivate something different because it is not the farmers who make money but the smugglers."
He said "only a very small amount of drugs" is used in Afghanistan and most is smuggled out of the country.
"The Afghan government can not combat opium cultivation alone. Farmers growing opium have the support of the Taliban and we need international support," he added.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
