VZCZCXRO2968
OO RUEHDBU RUEHIK RUEHPW RUEHYG
DE RUEHBUL #1356/01 1120816
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 220816Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY KABUL
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7648
INFO RUCNAFG/AFGHANISTAN COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RUEHZG/NATO EU COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/OSD WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RHMFIUU/COMSOCCENT MACDILL AFB FL PRIORITY
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 3990

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KABUL 001356 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/FO DAS GASTRIGHT, SCA/A, S/CRS, SA/PB, S/CT, 
EUR/RPM 
STATE PASS TO USAID FOR AID/ANE, AID/DCHA/DG 
NSC FOR AHARRIMAN 
OSD FOR SHIVERS 
CENTCOM FOR CG CJTF-82, POLAD, JICCENT 
REL NATO/ISAF 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PTER ASEC MARR AF SNAR KCRM
SUBJECT: PRT JALALABAD: WHAT NEXT FOR POPPY ERADICATION 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  (SBU) Nangahar Governor Sherzai shared his plans for the 
future with officials from the PRT at a lunch on April 18, 
including what to do with so much poppy in the province. 
Sharzai indicated he will fire officials who do not support 
his eradication campaign and complained that even members of 
the Provincial Shura and Parliament had themselves planted 
poppy.  Sherzai wants tougher punishment for those who grow 
poppy next year and spraying of fields.  He has plans to 
continue the fight against the drug mafia, demonstrated in 
the very public destruction of illegal drugs that day.  The 
Director of Religious Affairs met with PRT officials later in 
the week and debunked some of the justifications for growing 
poppy.  He believes that the governor should use the mullahs 
more next year to drive home the message that growing poppy 
is wrong.  END SUMMARY 
 
------------------------ 
Sherzai Discusses Future 
------------------------ 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  Nangarhar Governor Gul Agha Sherzai warmly 
welcomed members of the new PRT team to the Palace on April 
18, providing lunch to all soldiers and civilians in the 
convoy.  He discussed a number of issues, including what to 
do in the face of the large amount of poppy that was grown 
this year in Nangarhar, in spite of his aggressive anti-poppy 
campaign.  He declared his intent to fire more line directors 
and three more subgovernors who have not been supportive of 
the poppy eradication campaign.  He specifically mentioned 
the Director of the Disabled and Martyrs and the Sherzad 
Subgovernor. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  The Governor complained that all but five members 
of the Provincial Shura and two Members of Parliament from 
Nangarhar planted poppy this year.  While he has no authority 
over them, Sherzai will discuss the matter with President 
Karzai.  In a departure from his earlier public opposition to 
spraying (he has always privately maintained his support for 
spraying with Embassy contacts and pushed the issue with the 
Ministry of Interior), Sherzai advocated that next year the 
President and Parliament pass a law sentencing poppy growers 
to one year in jail and that their fields should be sprayed. 
Without tougher measures, he said, poppy production would 
continue to increase. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) PRT Officials noted the CNN interview by the 
Governor's Special Assistant Masood Azizi earlier in the week 
and complimented his articulate remarks debunking the 
justifications people made for growing poppy.  The Governor 
proudly pointed to Nangarhar as being number one in poppy 
eradication and further noted that he had a plan to fight the 
drug mafia.  (Note:  UNODC's latest report of verified 
eradication indicated that Nangarhar's 1467 hectares of 
eradication is second among governor-led efforts, trailing 
Kandahar's 7273 hectares.  UNODC has informed Embassy that 
there is a back-log of unprocessed eradication records from 
Nangarhar due to the province's recent intensive activity. 
Verified eradication figures for the province should climb 
sharply over the upcoming two weeks.  End Note).  Sherzai 
said that he would locate the drug labs and start 
confiscating the drugs.  Masood appeared later and told the 
group that he was on his way to burn seized drugs and that 
the international news media including CNN would witness the 
destruction.  (Press reports appeared the following day 
saying that Nangarhar police had destroyed four tons of 
narcotics outside of Jalalabad, and the lead of the Day in 
Photos on BBC's website showed the group pouring "petrol over 
a haul of heroin".) 
 
 
KABUL 00001356  002 OF 002 
 
 
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Sajid Shares Thoughts on Growing Poppy 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  (SBU) On April 19, PRT officials met Asadullah Sajid, 
Nangarhar Director of Religious Affairs, and discussed the 
many justifications people offered for growing poppy.  While 
Sajid confirmed there was flexibility in Islam -- that, for 
example, a person who was starving could eat food that was 
normally forbidden if that was all that was available, he 
debunked the idea that this argument could be used in the 
case of most poppy growers who had alternatives to support 
themselves, especially those with irrigated lands suitable 
for other crops. 
 
¶6.  (SBU) PRT officials asked why he thought there were such 
dramatic differences in the amount of poppy being grown in 
different districts.  Even the newly arrived soldiers at the 
PRT were surprise at the difference between the Kama and 
Goshta districts on a mission earlier in the week.  Kama is 
covered in wheat fields ready for harvest while Goshta is 
covered in poppy.  Sajid attributed this to several factors, 
including the fact that people in Kama tended to be more 
educated and had a long history of supporting the government. 
 Similar to the Governor's comments, he said that Members of 
Parliament and the Provincial Council from the Goshta 
district, in contrast, had planted poppy on their own land 
and probably encouraged others to do so as well. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Sajid thought the Governor needed to stress the 
idea that growing poppy was wrong and use the mullahs to 
express this more.  He also supported the idea of giving aid 
to those who did not grow poppy, since many people who did 
not grow poppy last year ended up growing it this year.  He 
noted that districts that grew poppy still received 
development projects and international aid. 
 
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Comment 
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¶8.  (SBU)  The Governor is disappointed at the large amount 
of poppy throughout the province, clearly identifiable by the 
bright red and white flowers covering the fields in some 
districts.  Early unofficial reports from UNODC suggest that 
Nangarhar may top 10,000 hectares of cultivation unless 
Governor Sherzai continues his recent pace of strong 
eradication.  The Governor now knows and accepts that he 
cannot fulfill his earlier, and frequent, promises to make 
Nangarhar poppy-free this year, but it is clear that he is 
not backing down from his aggressive counter-narcotics stance 
that has been evident over the past six months.  It was 
encouraging to hear that he has not given up and recognizes 
he must now turn his attention to law enforcement operations 
targeting the upcoming harvest, concentrating on those who 
will be processing and selling the drugs.  The PRT has heard 
many officials declare that the fight will be over once the 
poppy is harvested; however, Governor Sherzai, we suspect, 
will not be one of those who will walk away from this fight. 
 
¶9.  (SBU)  (Comment cont.) The Governor announced his intent 
to fire 15 district subgovernors in a meeting with PRT 
officials on April 4.  So far he has only fired three, from 
Rodat, Surk Rod, and Hisarek.  If he does fire the Sherzad 
subgovernor as he announced on April 19, Rodat will be the 
only one included in his list of five districts growing 90 
percent of the poppy ) Rodat, Chaparhar, Bati Kot, Shinwar, 
and Kot. 
 
WOOD