The Taliban banned drugs from opium cultivation in Afghanistan last week. Back in January, poppy fields and opium bazaars were looked through the fingers.
KANDAHAR / HELMAND Kandahar Central Prison Sarposa was still full of Taliban prisoners before last August.
Now, most of the 1,700 inmates in the prison are drug addicts, according to the Taliban guarding them.
Taliban, acting deputy director of the prison Maulvi Abdul Ghafar shows the way inside the prison gates.
– Most of the addicts are from nearby villages. Most are addicted to hashish, heroin and alcohol. Not so much opium, he says.
Whether everyone is still really dependent on prisoners is difficult to assess. Men flock to the courtyard of the prison wrapped in shawls, absent eyes in their eyes.
There is no heating in the prison for cold nights, but prisoners seem to be getting food.
In 2015, the UN estimated that there were 1.6 million drug addicts in Afghan cities. There were perhaps even more of them in the villages: three million. Afghanistan has been the number one country in opium poppy cultivation for decades.
During the last 20 years of the war, the Taliban earned much of their income from opium and heroin made from poppies. Many of the leaders of the former administration also had connections to the drug trade.
Prayers are believed to lead to healing
In Kandahar prison, the Taliban puts drug addicts to pray four times a day in a courtyard mosque.
– At first, many of them could not even stand on their own two feet. But now they are praying, thank Allah, Ghafar praises.
Then stumble. The prisoner faints behind us and the others cleverly hurry to carry him inside with the help of a blanket.
– He’s being taken to a prison clinic. If his condition is serious, we will take him to the hospital, the embarrassed deputy director explains.
Ghafar, the deputy director of the prison, says the Taliban are trying to make people understand how much harm is caused by drug use.
– The government is also trying to stop buying and selling drugs, but with caution, he says.
The Taliban allowed the operation of opium bazaars in January
The ban on cultivation led to opposition in rural areas. The same is a threat now: despite the recent ban, production has so far been largely viewed through the fingers.
The regions of Kandahar and Helmand are known for their poppy cultures and opium bazaars. One was still found in the middle of the Panjwai countryside in January, hidden in the middle of carpet shops when visited the site.
About ten trade hatches suddenly closed when outsiders were spotted in the bazaar. Opium traders sat on their carpets in the country sipping tea in the middle of the scales.
The Taliban agreed for a moment after the talks to allow us to interview the traders.
– Buyers are opium traders from abroad, mainly from Iran Muhammad Qasim said in January.
Still, a large fortune sitting in a bazaar, he says, doesn’t go hand in hand – higher returns apparently go into the pockets of smugglers and salespeople overseas.
The humanitarian crisis is driving people into the drug trade
The men of the opium bazaar were not proud of the work they did. Opium dealer Muhammad Janan outright effervescence.
– Give us our money back. If you cooperate with us, we will stop selling opium because we hate it like the rest of the world, the man shouted angrily.
Central bank assets held in the United States by Afghanistan have been frozen. Sanctions against the Taliban regime have waned almost all international aid.
The Taliban’s inflexibility in opening girls’ high schools, for example, will not help the situation. Prices have risen and the country is in the midst of a serious humanitarian crisis.
– I’m hungry and if someone asks me to quit this job, I’m ready to kill, Janan threatened.
Attempts were made to eradicate conifer cultivation
Drug traffickers will certainly not be sympathetic to the Taliban’s total ban.
The international community, especially the United States, has been trying to stop opium cultivation for the past 20 years.
It didn’t work: the harder the hand tried to eradicate the crop, the more the locals got angry and took up arms. According to the UN, about 85 percent of the world’s opium was produced last year in Afghanistan.
Along the road in the field leading to Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand, in January, almost 50 Haji Gul Muhammad.
The sons of relatives surrounding the man with a turban head dug into the ground with hoes and shovels. Muhammad had planted opium poppy seeds in his fields and now the ground was sprouting green shoots.
Muhammad has been cultivating opium along with wheat for 18 years. He has 20 acres of fields that are difficult to irrigate due to drought. Wheat requires more water and poppies grow faster.
– Before, the police tried to stop us, but the Taliban never came to stop opium cultivation, he said.
So it was now: the Taliban stood by the side of the road and did not interfere in Muhammad’s work.
– The Islamic Emirate (Taliban) told us to continue doing business. If (foreign) help comes, they will help us finish this job, the farmer said.
However, the Taliban has not indicated that it will provide assistance to farmers. It is unclear what will happen to Muhammad’s plantations now that the total ban has taken effect.