By Marco Cappato – MEP.
Sir, I hope your reports on Afghanistan (“Aid funds fail to reach drug farmers” and “Allies fall out over spraying of poppy crops”, May 30) will help, in the long run, all those who wish to see a radical revision of many international efforts in that country.The European parliament has assigned me the task of preparing a report that will address the possibility of diverting the illicit opium production that today invades Europe in the form of heroin into the legal market for analgesics. Afghanistanrisks becoming a place where western governments continue to experiment with their failing policies in a variety of fields – drug eradication being the most evident one.
Several observers admit that Afghanistan is building its “new” institutions thanks to the narco-mafias and not the rule of law that we should have been promoting since 2001. I also hope that, through your coverage of our debates at the European parliament in the coming months, we will be able to reassess our current policies, substituting common sense for the widespread promotion of dogmatic socioeconomic approaches.
Marco Cappato,
Member of the European Parliament (Group ALDE)
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Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
