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Afghanistan

My Lords, I am sure that these Benches would wish to add to the tributes that have already been paid to those who have been killed and injured in the conflict in Afghanistan. Earlier this week I, together with other Members of your Lordships’ House, met a team of officials from the Ministry of Counternarcotics in Afghanistan. They spoke very frankly. I was completely astonished with what they said about the degree, the depth and the spread of corruption in that country. They apparently have extremely hard evidence, including video evidence, of certain warlords who are now drug lords and who are dealing in drugs and are involved in corruption. However, they cannot be brought to court simply because they are so close to the Government. There is also evidence that those who were in the pay of various donors during the Cold War—the mujaheddin, the warlords—are themselves becoming drug lords and are still being paid by donors. So the corruption is not merely within the country; it also stretches outside the country and may well involve the donors. I have heard from several sources of a particular individual who has bought up a large amount of land in the south and will allow only poppies to be cultivated on that land when he gives it out to various villagers. I have also heard that if the leader of a village—or ““khan””—is prepared to forbid poppy cultivation, then poppy cultivation will cease. Can the Minister say something about any new ideas the Government may have about dealing with the disease of corruption rather than the symptom of poppy cultivation and what kind of collaboration are they pursuing with Europe and America?