Larger good but bad vibes

Afghanistan's anti-poppy drive could influence the forthcoming presidential elections.

The economic fortunes of Badakhshan province, a remote and wildly beautiful corner of far north-eastern Afghanistan, have risen and fallen over the past seven years with the production of opium poppies. Not long ago, emerald fields with nodding pink poppy flowers were everywhere and Badakhshan was one of the country's fastest-growing poppy producers. Today its golden hills are dotted with freshly harvested wheat stacks and its 95 per cent drop in opium production last year has been hailed as a model by international anti-drug officials.

For many communities, however, the loss of poppy income has meant a return to desperate rural poverty. As national elections approach, with President Hamid Karzai seeking re-election against a field of 40 challengers, the decision among Badakhshan's voters rests partly on whether they give his government and its international backers credit or blame for the end of the poppy boom.

"The authorities promised our people jobs and projects if they stopped growing poppy but that never happened," said a teacher in the provincial capital, who gave her name as Aria. "We know that opium is un-Islamic and makes people addicted but what about the farmers and their families? When we grew poppy, the people were doing well. Now they are suffering."

Aria was one of several thousand people at a recent campaign rally for Karzai's most prominent challenger, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, who made vague promises to bring economic development, better government and jobs. But his major selling point was his role in Afghanistan's "holy war" against the Soviet Union during the 1980s, when he was an aide to the now-deceased mujahideen leader Ahmad Shah Masoud.

"We believe in jihad. We do not want our Islamic values to be destroyed by the foreigners," said an elder named Rahim in the town of Jurm. Yet despite their emotional identification with Abdullah, many people interviewed after or outside the rallies said they planned to vote for Karzai, who has ruled the country with strong international backing since early 2002.

"I would say 80 per cent of the people in this district support Karzai," said Mohammad Eisa, 36, a mullah in Baharak. "His government has brought us roads and security. Our people are living in harmony."

In Faizabad, a sleepy town that is largely inaccessible in winter, opinions were mixed. Some inhabitants bitterly blamed Karzai's government for the lack of economic development, noting that the local airstrip is still a Soviet-made metal platform, the main road is only now being paved and donkeys remain the principal form of transportation.

Several women said the state of provincial healthcare is a disgrace and that many pregnant patients die in childbirth because it is so difficult to reach hospitals. For years, according to UN reports, the levels of infant and maternal mortality in Badakhshan have been the highest in Afghanistan and on a par with those in many sub-Saharan African countries.

Other residents disputed the criticisms, saying that conditions have improved noticeably during the Karzai era and that international charities have been able to operate safely because the region is more secure than many other parts of the country. "We hear there is fighting in other places but here we have 100 per cent security. That is enough for me," said Abdul Haq, 43.

In some ways, Badakhshan's unusual geography has created a political anomaly. Its remoteness has made it both virtually impervious to the predations of Taliban insurgents based in the distant south and exceptionally devoted to its local leaders. The governor, a Badakhshan tribal elder named Abdul Majid, has been credited with spearheading the anti-poppy drive by personally appealing to farmers across the province. The campaign in Badakhshan has proved more successful than in many other parts of Afghanistan, which produces more than 90 per cent of the world's illicit opium.

Although Majid was appointed by Karzai, he has said he received little help from the central government in fighting drugs. Roadside signs in several towns touted the US government's "alternative livelihoods" programme for poppy farmers but community elders complained that they had received scant assistance to develop legal crops.

"We have no work here. All our young men go to Iran to find jobs," said Abdul Samad, an elder in Kesham district who hosted a picnic for Abdullah in a thriving grove of poplar, pear and pine trees. But Samad said the grove had been funded by a Norwegian charity and that local farmers had neither the seeds nor the irrigation to replicate it.

"We need a strong Muslim leader, a real mujahid, to bring us jobs and justice," he said.