An Outbreak in Afghanistan

Omardin, a farmer in the Pacheeragam district in Nangarhar province, pointed to the contents of a black plastic bag. Inside, he said, was a substance he claimed was sprayed from an airplane as part of a drug-eradication effort in the country. He said his son has been made ill by the chemicals.

"I never even bothered to grow poppy, but because of the Americans, my God-given only son is sick," he said, shaking with anger. "His skin is sore and his body aches."

As his eyes welled up with tears, Omardin vowed, "If my son dies, I will join the Taliban, and I will kill as many Americans as I can find."

Omardin is not the only person who believes that foreigners – perhaps the Americans – are spraying opium crops with herbicides here as part of a counter-narcotics program.

Eyewitnesses in the eastern provinces of Nangarhar and Kunar have reported seeing aircraft spraying poppy fields. Doctors in the region, meanwhile, said the sudden outbreak of skin diseases and respiratory ailments are due to a mysterious chemical they have so far been unable to identify.

Afghan government officials have promised to investigate these claims. Jawed Ludin, spokesman for Afghan president Hamid Karzai, denies that the government authorized such aerial spraying in the Khogiani and Shinwari districts of Nangarhar. An official delegation is now studying soil samples taken from poppy fields in the area.

Afghanistan is the world's biggest producer of opium, accounting for three-quarters of global output. According to newly released United Nations statistics, opium cultivation in 2004 increased by 64 percent over the previous year.

Worried that Afghanistan may be evolving into a "narco-mafia" state, the United States, Europe and the United Nations have pledged to get tough on the opium trade. But the US military has insisted that its forces are not involved in crop eradication.

"US troops are not involved are not involved in eradication, which would include the spraying of poppy fields which we do not do," US military spokesman Major Mark McCann told Agence France-Presse last week.

A US embassy spokesperson in Kabul declined to comment, saying questions on the subject could be asked in an upcoming press conference. Last month, however, the US Drug Enforcement Agency announced that it had joined with the State Department and the Department of Defense in developing a new Counternarcotics Implementation Plan for Afghanistan. Under the program, the DEA announced that it will assist in destroying clandestine labs and seizing precursor chemicals, raw opium and opiate stockpiles.

To achieve that, the DEA said it is expanding its presence in Afghanistan by permanently stationing additional special agents and intelligence analysts in the country to enhance Afghanistan's counternarcotics capacity.

In addition, the DEA announced it would deploy foreign advisory and support teams to Afghanistan early next year to provide guidance and conduct bilateral investigations that will identify, target and disrupt illicit drug trafficking organizations. These teams, the agency said, will help with the destruction of existing opium storage sites, clandestine heroin processing labs and precursor chemical supplies.

US law enforcement agencies such as the DEA and the FBI already maintain a sizable presence in Afghanistan.

Haji Din Mohammad, the governor of Nangarhar province, is convinced that aerial eradication is already underway and that the United States is behind it. At a recent press conferen, he said, "The crops were eradicated, and farmers have seen big planes flying over the fields and spraying."

And in a separate press conference, General Mohammad Daoud, deputy interior minister in charge of counter-narcotics characterized aerial eradication as "illegal."