CANADA KEEN TO COOPERATE ON COUNTERNARCOTICS AND

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 OTTAWA 000147

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR INL AND WHA/CAN

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/29/2018
TAGS: PREL SNAR MOPS MARR AF CA
SUBJECT: CANADA KEEN TO COOPERATE ON COUNTERNARCOTICS AND
JUSTICE REFORM IN AFGHANISTAN

Classified By: PolMinCouns Scott Bellard, reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)

(1) (C) Summary: U.S. Coordinator for Counternarcotics and
Justice Reform in Afghanistan Thomas A. Schweich discussed
counternarcotics and the rule of law in Afghanistan with
senior Canadian officials in Ottawa on January 17.
Ambassador Schweich briefed progress on the 2007 U.S.
Counternarcotics Strategy for Afghanistan. The Canadians
reviewed their programming in Afghanistan, which focuses on
law enforcement, corrections, and judicial capacity-building,
as well as precursor targeting and interdiction, and regional
cooperation. The Canadians agreed to tell the Afghans that
NATO allies are in lockstep on CN strategy for Afghanistan.
Canada is keen to collaborate with the U.S. in these areas
bilaterally and multilaterally. End summary.


2. (C) U.S. Coordinator Schweich and Canadian Assistant
Deputy Minister (ADM) of Foreign Affairs for Afghanistan Yves
Brodeur met on January 17 to discuss progress on bilateral
and multilateral counternacotics (CN) and rule of law (ROL)
efforts in Afghanistan. Ambassador Schweich briefed Brodeur
on progress made to date with the new U.S. Counternarcotics
Strategy for Afghanistan, with its emphasis on word-of-mouth
public education, alternative development, ground
eradication, interdiction, and network-centric prosecutions.
He congratulated Canada for its progress on CN and ROL in
Kandahar, and urged the Canadians to support the Good
Performers Initiative (GPI).


3. (C) ADM Brodeur thanked Ambassador Schweich for the close
U.S. cooperation in Afghanistan, and stressed that Canada had
focused heavily on CN and was keen further to deepen its
collaboration with the U.S. This collaboration should
include our dealings with Pakistan, and efforts to stem the
flow of opposition militants and materiel from that unstable
country, he said. Brodeur stressed that Canada had "no
disagreement" with the points raised by Ambassador Schweich,
and agreed that it was time for Afghanistan to take ownership
of the CN issue. He nonetheless underscored that NATO-ISAF
allies and partners should make sure their programs and
information campaigns are "in synch." Assistant Secretary to
Cabinet Jill Sinclair separately stressed this same point.

Counternarcotics
--------------


4. (C) At an interagency roundtable, Afghanistan Task Force
(FTAG) Director General Kerry Buck noted that Afghan
President Karzai and others were using the debate over CN in
an "unhelpful" way, and suggested that Regional Command -
South (RC-S) countries work together to fix the
mis-perception that there are differences among allies on CN
for bad actors to exploit. She commented that Canada
understands Ambassador Schweich's points that poppy
correlates with insecurity and that security and CN programs
-- including eradication -- could not be "sequenced" one
after the other. The difference between the relatively
peaceful and poppy-free north and the unstable, poppy-ridden
south makes the need to face the poppy problem all the more
Qsouth makes the need to face the poppy problem all the more
immediate, she added. Canada is keen to coordinate its CN
strategy, she observed, in the areas of law enforcement
training, precursors, judicial reform, and alternative
livelihoods (much of which Canada funds via the UN),as
follow:

- on law enforcement training, Canada authorities believe it
is necessary to train all Afghan National Police (ANP) in CN,
which would increase the effectiveness and reach of CN units
to the provinces;

- on precursor controls, Canada is funding a UN project in
the border areas, and has deployed Royal Canadian Mounted
Police (RCMP) officers to the Afghan-Pakistan border, as well
as land ports, to increase bilateral coordination and
effectiveness;

- on CN-related judicial reform, Canada is working to build
and enhance justice and prosecution skills at the provincial
level, and seeks to "buttress" the ability of provincial

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authorities to fight drugs and corruption; and,

- on alternative livelihoods, Canada's aid agency, CIDA, has
been slow to develop an effective program, but hopes to have
one in place by the 2008 planting season.


5. (C) FTAG Deputy Director Richard Arbeiter noted that
roadway and other infrastructure development such as cold
storage projects, along with the potential opening of the
Kandahar airport to civil aviation, would help to get
legitimate crops to Pakistan, Dubai, and other more affluent
markets in the region. On the GPI, Arbeiter queried what
administrative structure would be in place to counter
corruption. Ambassador Schweich gave an overview of the
grant program, and agreed to convey details about financial
controls to the Canadians. Meanwhile, FTAG Senior Adviser
David Fairchild noted that the sequencing around access to
seeds and fertilizers for alternative livelihoods projects
had been a problem that undermined allied efforts to decrease
poppy production.

Kandahar and its Governor
--------------


6. (C) Ambassador Schweich noted that when he had visited
Ottawa in July 2007, the Canadians had been critical of the
Governor of Kandahar, to the point that they were looking at
work-arounds to avoid cooperating with, and thus bolstering
the authority of, the Governor. DG Buck told Ambassador
Schweich, however, that Canada had now "made its peace" with
the fact that "he's the guy we have, so he's they guy we have
to work with" particularly when -- for whatever reason -- his
interest in reducing poppy production tracked with Canada's
and the central Afghan government's interests in Afghanistan.


Rule of Law and Prisons
--------------


7. (C) DG Buck noted that, in part due to domestic political
issues surrounding transferring battlefield detainees to the
Afghans, Canadians had a particular focus on corrections
issues. Canada had deployed corrections advisers to UNAMA,
and others to work bilaterally with Afghan prison officials.
The main lesson learned in this area, she said, was that
Canada and its partners needed to "mesh" the training
development of police, courts, and corrections simultaneously
in order to be effective. Canada wants these ROL programs to
be part of the Focused District Development (FDD) program,
she stressed, because they are key to creating the perception
of fairness in Afghan society under central government
control.


8. (C) Canadian officials also pointed to the need for the
FDD to include security for justices, particularly in places
like Zhari and Panjway. ISAF partners face the same problems
to various degrees throughout Afghanistan, Buck noted, and
need to develop common approaches to addressing these common
challenges. Canada would emphasize this issue in its
dealings with RC-S partners and the rest of ISAF in the
coming months, she promised, but emphasized that Canada is
particularly keen to deepen collaboration with the U.S.
Canada's incoming Kandahar PRT commander and the next
Canadian RC-S POLAD both echoed this point in their
QCanadian RC-S POLAD both echoed this point in their
conversations with Ambassador Schweich.


Afghan Ambassador: Concerns, Ideas
--------------


9. (C) In a private meeting on the margins of a public
affairs event (below),Afghan Ambassador to Canada Omar Samad
expressed concern about what he described as an "erosion of
trust" among Afghans whose high expectations for progress and
good governance were not fulfilled by the Afghan government.
He attributed this erosion, in part, to the lack of
indigenous capacity for governance in Afghanistan, and argued
that the country's friends should help it by encouraging
skilled Afghan Diaspora to return. It might be better, he

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said, to take some of the money paid to "expensive
international consultants" and use it instead to entice
capable Afghans to do their part for Afghanistan. Samad also
expressed concern about the "Talibanization of thought" among
many Afghans, and argued for a project to train a cadre of
moderate Afghan imams in Afghanistan.

Public Affairs Bonus
--------------


10. (C) Ambassador Schweich's presentation of the U.S.
CN/ROL strategy to the prestigious Conference of Defense
Associations Institute provoked a lively, informed discussion
among some of Canada's most knowledgeable and influential
opinion leaders on Afghanistan. The over-subscribed event
permitted Ambassador Schweich to speak directly to subject
matter experts to whom Canadian media turn for information
and opinion regarding Canada's role in Afghanistan.

Visit Canada,s Economy and Environment Forum at
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