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Ex-US official claims Karzai aids drug lords

A former top US official has alleged that President Hamid Karzai is obstructing the fight against Afghanistan's burgeoning narcotics trade and protecting drug lords for political reasons.

  • AP
  • Published: 23:37 July 24, 2008
  • Gulf News

Kabul: A former top US official has alleged that President Hamid Karzai is obstructing the fight against Afghanistan's burgeoning narcotics trade and protecting drug lords for political reasons.

Thomas Schweich, who until June was one of State Department's top counternarcotics officials wrote in an article for the New York Times that appeared online late Wednesday that "narco-corruption went to the top of the Afghan government." He wrote that although the Taliban insurgency fighting Karzai's government profits from drugs, the president is reluctant to move against big drug lords in the country's south where most opium and heroin is produced because it is his political power base.

In 2007, Afghanistan produced 93 per cent of the world's supply of opium.

"Karzai had Taliban enemies who profited from drugs but he had even more supporters who did," wrote Schweich, who used to serve as coordinator for counternarcotics and justice reform in Afghanistan.

Next year sees the country's presidential elections, and Karzai has indicated he will likely run for another term in the office.

Afghan officials were not immediately available to respond to Schweich's allegations.

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