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One coalition, mainly grouping the Afghan government, its troops and coalition forces, is carrying out a life-and-death war against the other "coalition," made up of the Taliban and international drug smugglers, in Afghanistan's southern provinces, Helmand Governor Mohammad Daoud said.

"Taking Helmand province as an example, Taliban militants there are using their military forces to convoy international narcotics smugglers, and the latter provides money and many weapons for the Taliban," Daoud told Xinhua on Thursday during an exclusive interview by telephone.

The southern Helmand province, where 3,300 British troops are deployed to fight Taliban insurgents, is famous for vibrant Taliban activities and gigantic poppy cultivation, which accounts for 25 percent of the country's total poppy crop in 2005.

There is apparent evidence to show the Taliban is involved in drug trafficking, as Afghan and the US-led coalition forces have occasionally said they found opium and drugs after capturing Taliban hideouts.

In a recent case, coalition soldiers seized 70 kg opium paste, with an estimated value of US$3 million, in a mud-walled Taliban compound in Helmand on July 13.

The UN Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC) predicated in February the province's poppy cultivation would rise 50 percent to 40,000 hectares in 2006, up from 26,500 in 2005.

High profits have encouraged Afghan farmers to rush to poppy plant.

Daoud said, "Drug smugglers can provide money for farmers one year before the poppy harvest, so farmers are allured." The government should help farmers earn more money in other ways if it intends to get their support, he added.

In 2005, farmers in Helmand gain US$5,400 for each hectare of opium yield, which is almost ten times more than the equivalent price of wheat, according to a UNODC survey.

The total opium value in the province last year reached a staggering US$143 million, compared to the total wheat value at only US$44 million, though 80,000 hectares were dedicated to wheat cultivation.
 
Although the government officially forbids poppy cultivation in the country and burns a great amount of narcotics from time to time, Afghanistan still produces nearly 90 percent of opium in the world, which is first trafficked to neighboring countries, then mainly to Russia or to Europe and North America.

Daoud, a supporter of President Hamid Karzai, was appointed as Helmand Governor early this year. Until the Taliban regime, Daoud was heading an NGO, which distributed wheat among the poor in Afghanistan.

He told Xinhua the majority of opium profits went to pockets of international smugglers, while local farmers only received a tiny part.

He said the continuous drought in the region for several years had forced more farmers to plant poppy, which needs less water than other crops.

Southern Afghanistan including Helmand province has witnessed a rise of Taliban-linked violence this year, during which more than 1,200 people, mostly Taliban militants, have been killed.

One coalition, mainly grouping 11,000 Afghan and coalition forces backed by local governments, has launched the massive Operation Mountain Thrust in Helmand and other three provinces in southern Afghanistan, a stronghold of the Taliban, since mid-May to smash the enemies there.

More than 800 persons, most of whom are Taliban militants, have lost their lives in the operation.

Local resources told Xinhua more than 5,000 families of Helmand, which has a population of about 1 million, had fled their homes this year due to ascending violence, and some villages were totally emptied.

However, the other "coalition" has all along tried to show their seemingly untiring strength.

A purported Taliban statement said Wednesday that the Taliban would open "new fronts" in its war against foreign forces in Afghanistan, and launched more attacks in the coming days.

The statement said Afghan soldiers now had the last chance to leave the camp of the government, which it called as "a puppet of the United States."

The soldiers, as "obstacles between the Taliban and coalition forces," wouldn't have chance to surrender to the Taliban in the future, and they would be killed immediately after surrendering or being captured, it added.

Taliban militants also occupied the centers of Gamser and Nawa districts in southeast Helmand on Monday, apparently to show they had the ability to effectively control some major parts of this war-weary country. Afghan and coalition forces regained the two towns on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Daoud said the militants, carried by eight vehicles, had come to attack the two towns after crossing the porous Afghan-Pakistani border and escaped back to Pakistan later.

He said Pakistan, with a 160-km border with Helmand, should do more to fight Taliban militants on its side, while Pakistan has insisted it has deployed many troops on the border to combat terrorism.
 
"We should accept the seriousness of Taliban and drug problems in Helmand and other southern provinces. It is not easy to fight narcotics smugglers and Taliban militants together, and it needs hard and continuous work," Daoud said.

(Xinhua News Agency July 21, 2006)