§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what progress his Department is making in seeking to meet the targets of reducing poppy cultivation by 75 per cent. by 2003 and eradicating it completely by 2013. [188361]
§ Mr. RammellThe UK remains committed to supporting the Afghan government in implementing its 1705WS National Drug Control Strategy, which aims for a 70 per cent. reduction in opium poppy cultivation by 2008, and elimination by 2013.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) will publish its annual report on the level of poppy cultivation in the autumn. We anticipate an increase in cultivation levels. Although unwelcome, experience of counter narcotic policies in Pakistan and Thailand, which both had much lower initial levels of production and were more stable countries, shows that cultivation tends to increase before declining.
In the first year of implementation of the strategy, the basic counter narcotics structures have been put in place: drug control legislation, a Counter Narcotics Directorate, the Ministry of Interior's Afghan Special Narcotics Force, the Counter Narcotics Police and a central eradication capability. Work is also in hand to develop alternative livelihoods for farmers dependent on opium poppy cultivation. These measures provide a sound basis for the future development of robust institutions and programmes to combat opium production and trafficking. Progress remains linked to the wider security situation in Afghanistan and to the implementation of other areas of institution building such as policing and judicial systems.