Nato chief suggests new ways to fight Afghan opium production

The head of Nato's military force in Afghanistan said Wednesday he had proposed new ways to crack down on opium production, which is a major source of income for Taliban-led insurgents.
US General Dan McNeill, on a visit to Nato headquarters in Brussels, said he had made suggestions about what else the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) could do to Nato's top military and civilian commanders.
"I am satisfied that talking to members of the alliance they will come to some decision that will say: 'mandate stands as it is' or they will want some adjustments," he told reporters, without going into detail about his proposals.
"You can make the debate that there could be other things the ISAF force could be doing that would have more effect, and indeed the members of the alliance ... (are) likely to do it," he said. But he insisted that ISAF, whose aim is to provide security so that Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government can spread its influence throughout the insurgency hit country, should not start destroying poppy fields.
"I'm not desirous of the force becoming an eradication force. We're not manned. We're not trained. We're not equipped," he said. Nato officials acknowledge privately that the sight of soldiers ripping up opium crops would probably undermine their efforts to win the confidence of ordinary Afghans and turn them away from their former Taliban rulers.
"The fundamental principle is that the Afghans must take the lead for very obvious political reasons," added Nato spokesman James Appathurai. Afghanistan produces about 93 percent of the world's production illegal opium, the raw ingredient for heroin.
The crop jumped by a third this year, helped by good rainy weather, despite international efforts costing millions of dollars. Most of the production is in southern areas where the Taliban-led insurgency is at its fiercest.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime appealed for ISAF to get involved when it released a survey last month showing that opium production had risen to a record high.
The Afghan government has made a similar call, saying it had asked the international forces based here to clear insurgents from opium-growing areas so its own forces can move in to destroy the illegal crop.