white poppies in contemporary war: afghanistan and aberdeen hilary homans, 11 th may 2014

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