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Afghanistan: Provincial Reconstruction Teams

My Lords, I welcome my noble friend to his ministerial role and congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady D’Souza, on choosing this debate. In my opinion illegal opium is destroying Afghanistan. No solution to the stabilisation and development of that country is possible without overcoming the problem of that illegal opium production. Last year Afghanistan produced some 92 per cent of the world’s illegal opium. This vast illegal product produced an economy which simultaneously threatened stabilisation, development and the legitimacy of the Government and weakened the rule of law. Year by year the poppy harvest has increased and its economic significance has multiplied. The Taliban has capitalised on this. The forced eradication of the poppy crop has served to increase the Taliban base in farming communities. Talk of alternative crops has been risible in terms of the adequacy of the alternative income that would produce for the farmers. I am no expert but I am seriously persuaded by the report of the Senlis Council published last month on an Afghan village-based poppy-for-medicine project. The first reaction of people to a poppy-for-medicine project is to laugh at it, but in terms of opium production it has worked twice before in the world. It worked in Turkey in the 1970s with the support of the United States Drug Enforcement Agency and the United Nations. It also worked in different circumstances in India. The report gives detailed advice on the previous successful transfer of opiates to medical purposes. There is a global pain crisis and a serious shortage of medical opiates. The Senlis Council report claims that Afghanistan could supply medical morphine at a price currently 55 per cent below the market price of opium. In four minutes it is impossible to review the claimed merits of this scheme: the empowerment of the village shuras; the denial of the Taliban; the economic benefits percolating upwards from the villages; and the supply of medical opiates at an advantageous price, to which I have already referred. All those benefits are claimed. I have insufficient evidence to judge the merits of all the claims but I believe that they must be seriously examined. If some but not others are viable, Members of this House are entitled to a detailed explanation from the Government on how they propose to react to the report. I am not asking my noble friend the Minister to respond positively to the report tonight—although I certainly hope that he does not respond negatively to it—but I am asking him to make sure that it is studied and that a detailed response is given. An acknowledgement should be given that this mechanism has previously succeeded. I look forward to him giving that undertaking tonight. As I say, I do not ask him to respond other than to give me the guarantee that there will be a considered response. In expectation of a high quality reply to the debate and a ready, positive response to my request I congratulate my noble friend in anticipation of what I am sure will be an excellent maiden speech.