white poppies in contemporary war: afghanistan and aberdeen hilary homans, 11 th may 2014
TRANSCRIPT
White poppies in Contemporary War:Afghanistan and Aberdeen
Hilary Homans, 11th May 2014
www.abdn.ac.uk/sustainable-international-development
http://www.lovelifelivenow.com/blog/community/white-poppy-for-peace/
Overview
• Development & connectedness• Drugs & dependency• War against…?
April 2003Nurobod, Tajikistan
Source: http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/country/tajikistan.htmlPhoto credit: Homans, 2003
Opium plantation in Afghanistan http://www.onepennysheet.com/tag/afghanistan/
Opium pod, powdered heroin, heroin block
Injecting drugs inside the ruined cultural palace, Kabulhttp://www.gettyimages.in/detail/news-photo/heroin-addicts-inject-while-keeping-warm-by-a-fire-inside-news-photo/84745683
Inside the morgue, Kabul – injecting drug user who had overdosedhttp://www.gettyimages.in/detail/nieuwsfoto's/fazel-rahman-a-heroin-addict-lays-in-a-city-morgue-after-nieuwsfotos/84745519
Bags of heroin – ready to export
Aberdeen 2010How & why does the white stuff get here?
Photo: OST programme King Street
2001 Fall of the Taliban• Aid pledges made not fully met• Result – re-introduction of opium poppy
plantations• Drug production in Afghanistan increased
dramatically since the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban in 2001.
Opium cultivation in Afghanistan, 1994-2013 (Hectares)
Source: UNODC (1994-2002), MCN/UNODC (since 2003). The high-low lines represent the upper and lower bounds of the 95% confidence interval.http://www.unodc.org/documents/crop-monitoring/Afghanistan/Afghan_report_Summary_Findings_2013.pdf
Source: UNODC (2013) World Drug Report 2013, UN, New York.http://www.unodc.org/unodc/secured/wdr/wdr2013/World_Drug_Report_2013.pdf
Britain – Afghanistan links
1st March 2011 David Cameron and Hamid Karzai held talks on Afghanistan's future
2011 changes to Britain's aid programme
• Funds cut to 16 countries• Angola, Bosnia i Herzegovina, Cambodia, Kosovo, Vietnam no more UK aid Increases to Afghanistan, Somalia, Zimbabwe
Investment in reconstruction: UK govt by year
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2009 2010 2011 20120
50000
100000
150000
200000
250000
300000
116 216
34661
68604102000 102000
113000
178141207675
152052
264129
181375
£000s
£000s
Of rivers and drugs - Tajikistan/Afghanistan border
Photo credit Panj riverhttp://robbernrussiatochina.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/following-panj-river.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jF5rKW3VN3I
Governance and crime• Drug trafficking linked with people
trafficking and sex trafficking• Porous borders• Poor governance• Poor wages for security staff• Increasing inequalities and poverty
Youth• Youth unemployment about 20% for
CEE/CIS...boredom• Adolescence
...experimentation
Displaced male youth in Georgia – bored and unemployed
Age of first injecting decreasing• In Kazakhstan, 54% of people who inject drugs under age 25. • Adolescent IDUs (< 19 years): St. Petersburg, Russia, almost
1/3 people injecting drugs, Ukraine, 20% & Armenia 13%. • Young people who inject drugs age at first injecting:
– Albania the median age of first injection 16 years– Romania 76% & 67% started injecting before
age 18– Ukraine average age of first injection 14.4 years– Serbia 20% of all people who inject drugs started injecting
before age 18
People who inject drugs Population size estimates
Armenia Azerbaijan Belarus Kazakhstan Moldova Romania Serbia Tajikistan UK0
100,000
200,000
300,000
400,000
500,000
600,000
UNAIDS World AIDS Report 2013 http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/epidemiology/2013/gr2013/UNAIDS_Global_Report_2013_en.pdf
% of people who inject drugs per head of population
Russia Ukraine Georgia Kazakhstan Kyrgystan Tajikistan0.00.20.40.60.81.01.21.41.61.8
% of IDUs per population
UNAIDS: 2010
Injecting drugs & problem drug use in Aberdeen
Area Estimated numberInjecting drug users
Estimated numberProblem drug use
Estimated prevalence IDUs
Estimated prevalence Problem drug use
Aberdeenshire 683 1,400 0.43% 0.83%
Aberdeen 2,246 3,200 1.56% 2.31%
Mainland Scotland 23,933 61,000 0.71% 1.71
• Aberdeen city has the second highest rate of injecting drug use in Scotland• 27 drug-related deaths were recorded in Aberdeen city in 2008 – cause of
most deaths were heroin/morphine, benzodiazepine and alcoholSources: Health Protection Scotland, 2009/10 http://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Drugs-and-Alcohol-Misuse/Publications/2013-06-25/2013-06-25-Injecting-Equipment-Provision-2011-12-Report.pdf
Russian Federation
• At least 30,000 people die in Russia every year from heroin, 90% of it smuggled in from Afghanistan.
• Russia and the European Union have developed a 5 year plan to tackle the Afghan drug trade.
• Ivanov argues for criminalisation and poppy-crop eradication.
Viktor Ivanov Director of Russia's Federal Service for the Control of Narcotics 21/02/2011
The Problem:
Injecting heroin driving the HIV epidemic
The Intervention:
Programme targeting pre-injectors to reduce transition to heroin use / injecting
• HIV prevalence among people who inject drugs remains high.
• HIV prevention coverage for people who inject drugs remains low.
• Among 35 countries providing data in 2013, all but four reached less than 10% of opiate users with substitution therapy.
UNAIDS World AIDS Report 2013 http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/epidemiology/2013/gr2013/UNAIDS_Global_Report_2013_en.pdf
HIV
% of people who inject drugs who are living with HIV
Belarus Estonia Georgia Kazakhstan Kyrgystan Moldova Pakistan Tajikistan UK0
10
20
30
40
50
60
17.1
UNAIDS World AIDS Report 2013 http://www.unaids.org/en/media/unaids/contentassets/documents/epidemiology/2013/gr2013/UNAIDS_Global_Report_2013_en.pdf
% of people in Scotland who inject drugs who share drug injection
equipment 2002 to 2011
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2009 2010 20110
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
3334
31
27
2220 18 17 17
Chart Title
Series1
Source: Scottish Drug Misuse Database 2002 to 2011
Not only HIV...
• Hepatitis B and C• Drug dependency in children• Linkages between sexual and injecting drug
transmission• Problems with rehabilitation and lack of
integrated services
Conclusion• Lack of support for international
development has devastating consequences not only for the country concerned, but for a wide range of other countries and cities close to home.
• Failure to meet Millennium Development Goal 6 to reduce HIV infection
Conclusion
• Need to invest in economic, social and environmental development i.e. sustainable international development
• War against terrorism, poppies, drugs?
Protecting people
or poppies?
http://themellowjihadi.com/
White Poppies for PeaceWhite Poppies for Peace first appeared in 1933 on Armistice Day, ‘presenting an alternative view of security and how to achieve it without violence’. http://hastingsonlinetimes.co.uk/hot-topics/campaigns/peace-poppies-in-the-peace-garden