afghanistan's media against Narcotics

CETENAGROUP has been paid millions of dollars to implement a counter narcotics strategy.  The team of the strategy is "Afghanistan’s Media Against Narcotics".

CETENA attempts to harmonize counter narcotic media strategy. They have taken over 34 independent radio station around the country to broadcast their counter narcotic spots.

CETENA pays US$1000 per month for radio stations in exchange for exclusive CETENA advertisement. “Growing poppy is a crime. Government will prosecutor poppy cultivators, if you grow poppy you don’t deserve to live in our society” is a message aired several times in a small radio station in Helmand or Kandahar or Nangarahr “If you are living on poppy money, you are rescuing your life and your family. Afghan government will arrest you and you will spend your life behind bars” government has no control what so ever where this advert is aired and almost everybody grows poppy there. This puts the radio station against the community, especially when it’s not branded. The spot doesn’t say who brings it to the audience. It sounds like it’s a message from the radio station. Opium, like terror, is a dead end for the Afghan people. At an August 9 special narcotic briefing at the State Department, John Walters, director of the President’s Office of National Drug Control Policy said that more than 90 percent of the world’s opium is grown in Afghanistan.

its estimated that the total export value of Afghanistan’s opium was $3.1 billion, representing approximately 32 percent of the country’s total ( licit and illicit ) gross domestic product.
“The big money made off of opium in Afghanistan is made by the upper levels of the chain – the warlords, the traffickers, the corrupt individuals who are involved in this,” Walters said. This is why the radio station this campaigns the radio station. The upper levels of the chain are the sort of people that has a lot of influence in the politics and economy, Karzai is scared of them. That is why none has been prosecuted. A police commander in Kabul city told me that he has several times rang officials in the ministry of interior to tell them that he has intercepted tilted window cars with no number plates, transporting opium. The police commander who asked to remain anonymous was advised by senior ministry official to stay off the matter and not to create headache for them. If the government is scared to confront the upper level traffickers why is American putting the local radio in danger.  “suppressing media is the new American policy. the traditional American way of stabbing on the back, they are misleading media to fight the drug problem. A fight which Americans failed and clearly they are not sincere and committed about fighting narcotics, the objective is not eradicating the poppy but eradicating the media by poppy” said an afghan drug analyst, Asarullahaq Hakimi. 

“There is no miracle crop,” Schweich a US official “There’s nothing that really will equal the income you can get from poppy.”  The chief benefit of not growing the opium poppy, which is a highly labor-intensive crop, is the security of not having to deal with corrupt and violent organizations, he said.

Successful and sustainable agricultural endeavors require electricity, roads and market access.  “It’s important,” Schweich added, “to remember there’s a pathway to go from being a subsistence farmer to having a future for your children and your family that’s better off.”

In explaining the U.S. Counternarcotics Strategy for Afghanistan, released August 9, the officials said the United States plans to focus on high-yield crops such as fruits and nuts that come closer than other crops to replacing the income from the poppy.

The 2007 alternative development campaign, for example, with annual expenditures of $120 million to $150 million, includes short-term cash-for-work projects and comprehensive agricultural and business development projects.

 

korean ransom

South Korea's intelligence chief has refused to deny that his government paid a ransom to the Taleban to release 19 hostages last week.
Kim Man-bok admitted to a parliamentary committee that there were undisclosed terms involved in the deal with the Afghan rebels.
there have been persistent media reports alleging that a multi-million dollar ransom was paid.
A Taleban representative in Ghazni province, where the hostages were held, told the BBC the South Korean government paid $20m but two other Taleban sources told the BBC no ransom was paid.
Afghan officials have said a sum slightly under $1m was handed over.
 

 

hundreds of schools remain closed in the south

September 9^th is the international literacy day, in Afghanistan's insurgency-hit southern provinces; there are concerns that hundreds of schools will remain closed due to insecurity.
"At least 300 schools in Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul and Uruzgan provinces will not open because of insecurity," Siddiq Patman, deputy minister of education, in addition to this another 180 schools has been torched down by the rebels.

Over six million students, 38 percent of them female, have been registered at schools throughout the country, up to 40 percent of them in the warmer south, the Ministry of Education (MoE) said. In spite of high enrollment rate in the south, there are less students in the upper classes due to high drop out rate. Only a quarter of children make it to the 9^th grade in the south. More than half of school age girls in the south are not enrolled in schools.
Owing to insurgency-related violence and other problems, over 350 schools were closed down in the southern provinces in 2006.

In the southern province of Helmand, where Taliban insurgents control several districts, the education system has been disintegrating over the past four years.
"In 2003 there were 224 functioning schools in Helmand. Now only 90 schools are likely to open on Monday [10 September]," said Taj Mohammad Popal, head of the provincial education department. Since 2005, 36 schools have been burned down and 17 teachers killed in Helmand province

Afghan officials say they cannot operate schools in areas under Taliban control, where girls have been denied the right to education and boys can only attend Islamic study classes at mosques.

Afghanistan's progress in education over the past five years has been praised in some quarters, but over half of all Afghan children (about 3.5 million people) are out of school, the UK-based charity, Oxfam, said in October 2006.

The MoE said 14 schools were torched by insurgents in several provinces between April and May 2007.

radio torched down

Radio sadaiHaqiqat, Salam Watandar partner station in samangan was torched down last night. The radio station was set up by the local youth, mostly consisted home made gears.

They joined SW in 2005.

 

The perpetrator or the cause of the attack is unknown. The station was off air this morning. However it’s said that the station was partly damaged.  

 

The station had had received some threats, mostly from local information and culture authority.

During Zahar Shah’s mourning days SW had some critical programs of his reign which the local authorities didn’t like and ordered the station to stop it.

Will keep you posted