Afghanistan: Opium Crop

House of Lords written question – answered at on 14 February 2006.

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Photo of Baroness Tonge Baroness Tonge Liberal Democrat

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What discussions they have had with the allied forces in Afghanistan with a view to the destruction of opium poppy crops in Afghanistan with aerial crop spraying.

Photo of Lord Triesman Lord Triesman Parliamentary Under-Secretary, Foreign & Commonwealth Office, Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign and Commonwealth Office)

We have not had any discussions with the Allied Forces in Afghanistan on aerial eradication. In a press release issued on 18 November 2004, President Karzai stated his Government's opposition to the aerial spraying of poppy fields as an instrument of eradication. The Government of Afghanistan's National Drug Control Strategy, launched at the London conference on 31 January 2006, states,

"where there are legal livelihoods, a credible threat of eradication is needed in order to incentivise the shift away from poppy cultivation. We will therefore carry out targeted ground-based eradication throughout Afghanistan in order to ensure we make maximum progress towards our long term elimination goal".

The UK supports this policy.

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