• header EFSAS

Sessions of UNHRC

Ms. Yoana Barakova (EFSAS) speaking on Human Rights in Afghanistan during UNHRC

12-03-2018, Geneva

Ms. Yoana Barakova (Research Analyst EFSAS) speaking during 37th Session UNHRC on Narco-Jihad and the phenomenon of funding Terrorism activities through drug-trafficking at a Side-event, "Human Rights situation in Afghanistan".

Ms. Barakova illustrated the nexus between narcotics and terrorism and how it is inherently controversial and a deeply politicized concept. She added that the poppy plant cultivation currently flourishes in the Golden Crescent, which is Asia's principal area of illicit opium production that overlaps three nations, namely Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, whose mountainous peripheries define the crescent. 

Ms. Yoana Barakova speaking at a Side-event: "Human Rights situation in Afghanistan"

 

Ms. Barakova also spoke about the Taliban which is involved in opium smuggling to Pakistan and said that this business is dominated by affiliates of the main Pakistani political parties and figures in the Pakistani army and intelligence services. This illuminates the wide spectrum of international agents involved, which infers the possibility of expansion of the opium cultivation to Afghanistan’s neighbouring countries. By far the worst scenario from a global security perspective would be the shift of drug production to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa or even Punjab in Pakistan. She added that for over twenty years, Pakistan has been a major heroin refining and smuggling hub in the region, with the large-scale hawala system facilitating the transfer of drug profits. Today, these territories also have extensive and well-organized Salafi insurgency and terrorist groups that aim to overturn the Pakistani government.

                                    

She suggested that counter-narcotic and counter-terrorist strategies must go hand in hand in order to even begin to turn the current against this powerful and well-established industry. The concept of ‘Narco-Jihad’ – the contradictory and absurd justification of acts of violence in the name of religion, which is nourished by the revenues of the illegal trade of drugs – needs to be fully recognized and condemned by all parties involved, including the common people, opium cultivators, insurgents, government officials and policy makers. If the Taliban and the drug lords use the Islamic rhetoric to give righteous grounds for their actions, then this very same rhetoric must be used and backlashed against them, in order to unveil their hypocritical and counterintuitive stance. This could be achieved through nationwide public campaigns, which involve all sectors of society – religious, educational and governmental. For every leaflet and exhortation from the insurgents justifying opium, the Afghan government should be there to highlight the Taliban’s hypocrisy and advertise the damage done to other Muslims.  

 

For more videos of EFSAS