Debriefing UNODC on ISAF Counternarcotics Activities --

UNCLAS UNVIE VIENNA 000195 SIPDIS SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED DOD PASS CINCCENT, KABUL PASS C-JTF BAGRAM E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR NATO UN AF SUBJECT: Debriefing UNODC on ISAF Counternarcotics Activities -- ACTION REQUEST ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY AND ACTION REQUEST: The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has requested to be debriefed on NATO-ISAF counternarcotics activities so that UNODC can factor these activities into its ongoing analysis of Afghan opium cultivation and trafficking. UNVIE supports this request and asks that the Department work with appropriate U.S. military and NATO authorities to establish a formal mechanism for this purpose. END SUMMARY AND ACTION REQUEST. ¶2. (U) The analysis of UNODC and the advocacy of its Executive Director Antonio Costa were crucial to the October 2008 decision by NATO Defense Ministers in Budapest for NATO-ISAF to play an enhanced role in counternarcotics efforts. In March 2009, the White House White Paper on our new AfPak strategy reaffirmed this role, stating that: "The NATO/International Security Assistance Forces and U.S. forces should use their authorities to directly support Afghan counternarcotics units during the interdiction of narco-traffickers. The new authorities permit the destruction of labs, drug storage facilities, drug processing equipment, and drug caches and should contribute to breaking the drug-insurgency funding nexus and the corruption associated with the opium/heroin trade." ¶3. (SBU) At a meeting with Ambassador Schulte on April 2, Costa requested that a mechanism be established to pass information on ISAF operations involving counter-drug dimensions to UNODC so that it can factor these operations into its ongoing analysis of opium cultivation and trafficking. He told Ambassador that he heard, on the margins of the March 31 The Hague Conference on Afghanistan, about four military operations that included the bombing of drug markets. Reportedly, he said, one of them, Operation Visa, involved several U.S. soldiers. At a meeting of the "Friends of Afghanistan" on April 28, Costa noted press reports on such operations (The Scotsman on April 24 reported UK Marines seizing drugs worth 50 million Pounds Sterling from a Taliban base),and reiterated his outstanding request. ¶4. (SBU) UNVIE supports Costa's request because UNODC analysis and advice provide important input for shaping U.S. and international counternarcotics strategy and evaluating its results. UNODC opium surveys have become the international metric for evaluating the impact of counternarcotics efforts. U.S. and NATO decision-makers would benefit by UNODC analysis, for example, showing the longer-term impact of ISAF operations by province on planting decisions and trafficking trends. ¶5. (SBU) Details on NATO and national operations (e.g. date, location, purpose, results) could be provided in theater to the UNODC field office in Kabul following each operation or on a monthly basis. We would also appreciate more general information on NATO (or U.S.) operations that we could periodically provide to Costa or brief to the "Friends of Afghanistan." UNODC is not/not requesting advance information on operations. ¶6. (U) Mission would appreciate being able to reply to Costa on the response to his request by the end of May. ¶7. (SBU) Costa will go to Kabul May 4. Mission recommends US/NATO military authorities in Kabul meet Costa to discuss the possibility of setting up such a mechanism. SCHULTE