US memo faults Karzai over Afghan heroin - NY Times

NEW YORK - US officials said in a memo to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this month that a poppy eradication programme aimed at Afghanistan's heroin trade was ineffective partly because of President Hamid Karzai's leadership, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.

The May 13 cable from the US Embassy in Kabul to Rice, shown to the Times by an official said to be alarmed at the slow pace of poppy eradication, said provincial officials and village elders impeded destruction of poppy acreage. It also said top Afghan officials, including Karzai, had done little to counter that.

The Afghan president is scheduled to meet US President George W Bush at the White House on Monday.

"Karzai has been well aware of the difficulty in trying to implement an effective ground eradication programme, (but) he has been unwilling to assert strong leadership, even in his own province of Kandahar," according to the cable quoted by the Times.

The newspaper said the cable was drafted by embassy personnel involved in the anti-drug efforts.

The poppy flower produces opium, the base for heroin and morphine.

Afghanistan is estimated to have supplied 87 per cent of the heroin sold worldwide this year.

The cable also faulted Britain, which has the top responsibility for fighting drugs in Afghanistan, for being "substantially responsible" for the failure to eradicate more acreage, the Times said.

British personnel had been unwilling to redirect efforts to the main growing areas, the cable said.

State Department officials defended Karzai, saying the eradication effort had been hampered by bad weather, logistical problems and political resistance.

"President Karzai is a strong partner and we have confidence in him," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher told the Times. "We are succeeding in our overall effort" to address the drug problem.

A British Foreign Office spokeswoman defended its efforts. "We don't believe we are picking the wrong targets," she said, adding Britain was emphasising alternatives for poppy growers.

- REUTERS