By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

HERAT, Afganistan-A recent report from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs has discovered that one in ten Afghani households has at least one drug user.  In Herat, it is one in five.

Known as an area of stability and progress in Afghanistan, Herat has become one of the world’s most addicted societies as a global leader in opium production.  Total number of drug users in Afghanistan is estimated to be 1.6 million, which is about 5.3 percent of the population.

The use of opiates has doubled from 2005 to 2009, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, with the number of heroin users jumping to more than 140 percent.  However, government funding for treatment and outreach is less than $4 million a year with most treatment programs relying heavily on $12 million a year in extra international funding.

Despite the growing severity in recent years, the drug crisis in Afghanistan is nothing new.  International health officials claim it spawns from the traditional use of opium for medication.  One of the earliest challenges Afghan security forces had to overcome was a public image as a “band of opium-addled thieves.”

“This is a tsunami for our country.  The only thing our drug production has brought us is one million drug users” stated Dr. Ahmad Fawad Osmani, the director of drug demand reduction for the Ministry of Public Health

Rural areas have seen the highest use and worse conditions with drug use as high as 30 percent of the population, based on hair, urine, and saliva studies accumulated by authors of a recent urban study.

To make matters worse, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) recently fired 65 officers after discovering that they were addicted to heroin.  “We have sacked 65 employees who were addicted to heroin and our efforts will continue,” stated the Rahmatullah Nabil, the acting head of NDS.

The men were discovered by way of a project implemented to weed out drug users from the NDS ranks.  The program started in Kabul but will soon be expanding to NDS staff across all of the country’s 34 provinces, said Nabil.

Another method used in the fight against opium has been the success of saffron, a spice fetching thousands of dollars per kilogram.  It is one of the few crops that Afghanistan can use to compete with the profits of opium cultivation.  However, lack of accessible flights and border control of potential businessmen have hindered the saffron market

For more information, please see the following: 

Sydney Morning Herald-Junkie ghettos tell of country’s growing addiction-03 November 2013

New York Times-That Other Big Afghan Crisis, the Growing Army of Addicts-02 November 2013

Stars and Stripes-Options limited for broke, addled and hopeless on Afghanistan’s heroin highway-30 October 2013

Reuters-Afghan intelligence agency sacks 65 ‘heroin addicts’-22 October 2013

By Kathryn Maureen Ryan
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A shortage of fuel has led to blackouts across the Gaza Strip after Palestinian Enclave’s only power plant halted production. The plant supplies one third of Electricity to the Gaza Strip. The plant’s operators claimed that they no longer have enough fuel to keep the plant producing electricity for residents of the Gaza Strip after tunnels connecting Gaza and Egypt were shut down.

Gaza residents have suffered around eight hours of daily blackouts in recent years as a result of fuel shortages. The Gaza Energy Authority said the plant’s closure could mean Palestinians in Gaza will suffer 12 hours of daily blackouts.

Energy Authority deputy chairman, Fathi el-Sheikh Khalil Said “we have completely stopped the operation of [the] power plant this morning at 6:00 a.m. because we don’t have a single liter of fuel.” He said that the plant was shut down because of the fuel shortage and that the “all parts of life in Gaza will be affected.”

Electricity had been cut off across most of the territory on Friday morning. Khalil blamed the power outage on Israel’s destruction of tunnels used for bringing fuel and other supplies into to Gaza. He also argued that the Western-backed government of the Palestinian Authority has been charging Hamas unreasonable prices for fuel. He said “less than 50 percent of the needs of the Gaza Strip are currently covered by electricity from Israel” he said Gaza “can no longer get Egyptian fuel due to the destruction of tunnels from Egypt.”

While many residents of the Gaza Strip depend on the state of Israel for electricity services Khalil said; “less than 50 percent of the needs of the Gaza Strip are currently covered by electricity from Israel [and] we can no longer get Egyptian fuel due to the destruction of tunnels from Egypt. We tried to get fuel from Israel via the Palestinian Authority, but it has imposed prohibitive taxes.”

The Palestinian Authority to deliver fuel to Gaza without the usual taxes last week in order to help address the electricity crisis. It would have allowed the Hamas government to purchase 400,000 liters of fuel a day. However the Palestinian Authority backed away from its offer.

 According to Khalil; “the plant will remain shut until fuel supplies resume from Egypt through the tunnels or the Rafah border crossing, or from Israel if the Palestinian Authority agrees not to impose the heavy taxes.”

While in the past Gaza has depended on Egypt for fuel, relations between Gaza and the Egyptian state have deteriorated significantly since President Morsi was removed from power in Egypt in July. The military regime in Cairo has begun to destroy tunnels connecting Egypt’s Sinai region to the Gaza Strip. The military regime has cited security concerns related to its counterterrorism efforts in the Sinai Peninsula as a justification for the destruction of the tunnels. Government Officials in Gaza claim that at least 80 percent of the tunnels have been destroyed since the military regime in Egypt took power in July.

For more information please see:

Agence France-Presse – Power Outage across Gaza as Fuel Runs Out: Hamas – 1 November 2013

Al Jazeera – Gaza Power Plant Shuts Down as Fuel Runs Out – 1 November 2013

The Jerusalem Post – Gaza’s Sole Power Plant Shuts Down Due to Fuel Shortage – 1 November 2013

The Jerusalem Post – Power Stops in Gaza Strip as Fuel Runs Out – 1 November 2013

Times of Israel – Power Outage in Gaza as Sole Plant Halts Electricity Production – 1 November 2013

By Darrin Simmons
Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

DAMASCUS, Syria-Syria has met a key deadline in the disarmament program, destroying all of its declared chemical weapons production and mixing facilities.  The next deadline is November 15, when the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and Syria must agree to a detailed plan for destruction of the 1,000 metric tons of toxic chemicals.

“Phase three will last to June 2014 and will involve United Nations mission support to monitor all destruction of 1,000 tons of chemical weapons.  The UN/OPCW has no mandate to destroy them so a UN member state will have to provide technical and operational support.

But also, we have to be a bit suspicious about the second phase as this is what Syria has declared, and see that other states will agree with Syria on the amount it said it has.  Other countries may have their own intelligence,” stated Omar Al Saleh, a reporter for Al Jazeera.

The OPCW has inspected and removed chemical equipment from 21 out of the 23 chemical weapons sites across Syria, with the other two sites being too dangerous to inspect and already having their equipment transferred.

Locations of the sites which were not inspected have not been specified, demonstrating the perils of operating in a war zone with multiple places being under siege and unpredictably shifting battle lines.

A spokesman for the OPCW, Michael Luhan, reported that one of the two uninspected sites was near Damascus.  It was also reported that eight inspectors returned to OPCW headquarters after spending a month in Damascus as part of an advanced team there on October 1^st.

“Syria has completed the functional destruction of critical equipment for all of its declared chemical weapons production facilities and mixing/filling plants, rendering them inoperable,” said the OPCW.

While some experts favor the announcement as a milestone, others remain fearful as it has left Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in control of 1,290 tons of chemical weapons and an assortment of conventional weapons used during the country’s bloody civil war to kill over 100,000 people.

“The Assad regime continues to use artillery, air power and siege tactics against civilians, with thousands killed every month.  While the destruction of facilities is an important first milestone, it brings no relief to the Syrian people.  As winter approaches, the humanitarian situation grows more acute with millions left vulnerable,” stated the British Foreign Office.

It will remain to be seen whether Syria destroys all of its stockpiles by mid-2014. 

For more information, please see the following:

Al Jazeera-Syria chemical weapons facilities ‘destroyed’-31 October 2013

Guardian-Syria’s chemical weapons production facilities destroyed, says watchdog-31 October 2013

New York Times-Chemical Arms Inspectors Say Syria Has Destroyed All Declared Sites-31 October 2013

Reuters-Syria meets deadline to destroy chemical production facilities-31 October 2013