Panel I of a Hearing of the Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs

Statement

Panel I of a Hearing of the Middle East and South Asia Subcommittee on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs - Counternarcotics Strategy and Police Training in Afghanistan

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REP. SHEILA JACKSON LEE (D-TX): Let me express my appreciation for much of the testimony that I have heard and let me say that I think this is such an overwhelming problem. And frankly I'm disappointed over a period of time of the absence of our attention to Afghanistan, the conflicted responsibilities that the United States military has, with the continuing conflict in Iraq. And frankly I think that we're climbing up a very rough side of the mountain.

I have been to the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan. I have seen the difficulties of dealing with the rising Taliban presence and other issues that are different from the narcotics issue. So I think we have a compounded problem, and because we are wrongly in Iraq, we obviously are distracted from what really should have been our main attention.

Frankly, I want to put on the record that we should not have had this retreat, if you will, this failure after 9/11, when we went in, in defending our nation, and basically cleared the way for opportunity. I was one of the first members of Congress to visit with then-Mr. Karzai, even prior to the time that he had been officially elected. And there was great hope, and there was great hope for the people of Afghanistan, and there was great hope for the women. And now we see a very visible retreat. They need our help.

And the narcotics is something that is frightening because it is so expansive, it is so widespread. And even as we isolate certain areas, it is even difficult to tackle this massive problem.

So my question to you is, dealing with the actual people there -- we went to the World Bank yesterday and noted that some of their educational funding might not be as high as it should be in some areas around the world. My question would be -- is, what role could improving educational opportunity at all levels for men and women play in combatting this (disastrous ?) problem, terrible problem, and also to ask: What is your perspective on when we will accomplish what we'd like to accomplish? Is this a disease that we'll be continuing to treat, or do we have the mechanisms, the money, the wherewithal to stamp it out completely by giving options for these farmers that they'll be willing to take?

MR. SCHWEICH: Thank you, Congresswoman.

With respect to educational opportunity, that has been one of the predominant efforts of the U.S. Agency for International Development. There are more people going -- orders of magnitude -- more people going to school now in Afghanistan than in the past.

With respect to counternarcotics education, that is a critical part of our public information campaign. What resonates very much with the Afghans when they're considering whether to grow poppy is when you tell them that this poppy is poisoning their own people. And we're trying to get that message out in schools and in shuras and with religious groups there. When they realize that this is not just a cash crop, this is a poison they're growing; it kills people not only in remote places in the world but in their very own country, we've found that the message resonates.

So increasing overall educational opportunity has been actually quite successful.

That has been a success story in Afghanistan in terms of the number of girls that are going to school now who have --

REP. JACKSON LEE: So what kind of money has been put into this? When you say "increasing educational opportunities," what are you -- you know, what's the amount of money that the State Department has worked with Congress to get?

MR. SCHWEICH: In terms of specifically for education, I'll have to get -- I'll take that for the record and get back to you. But one thing I do know is that the number of Afghans going to school is many, many higher than before, and of course, girls weren't even allowed to go to school. Now, you see, if -- I was in Kabul three or four weeks ago, and you see girls with backpacks on and heading off to school. I think I'll be able to show you, with both the numbers and -- in terms of how many are going to school and the funding -- that that's been pretty successful.

Where I think we need to be more successful is in the counternarcotics education piece of it, rather than the general education, and I'm happy to get some more information for you on that.

REP. JACKSON LEE: Well, let me just say this. You say they're going up -- you were in Kabul -- but we're talking about in the places that are away from Kabul, that are patrolled by the Taliban, where there is brutality against women --

MR. SCHWEICH: Yeah.

REP. JACKSON LEE: -- where girls are not going to school, where the poppy is growing -- that's really the real question. And the question is whether or not we have any wherewithal, any possibility of overcoming or making or creating any success story, because we are looking at several issues. We're looking at the issue of the small number of military there because of Iraq and because you have to combine the presence of force with what you're attempting to do.

MR. SCHWEICH: Yeah. Well, there's no doubt that in places like Helmand in the south, where the Taliban is very active, that they've been intimidating people. They've been killing people who go to school; there's no doubt about that. And so bringing security to that region is obviously a top priority, and once the security is there, they'll be able to get more educational opportunities there. But I'm not going to sugarcoat it; it's a huge problem in the south.

Now, it's not just in the cities, though, where there's good education; throughout the north, where there's relative security, we're seeing much more education. Sort of the blue provinces on this map here -- educational opportunities are increasing, and even in rural areas in those places.

The problem are these red and these pink provinces, where there is such intimidation of anyone that cooperates with any sort of improving of education for women and for anybody, really, because they don't want to see any success. And so they're undermining it, they're attacking schools, killing teachers and those types of things, and obviously the priority is to bring security so that we can then bring education.

REP. JACKSON LEE: Well, let me just conclude by saying that I am not hopeful, and I wish I was. And I think this is a massive problem that we have contributed to ourselves by lessening our military presence and allowing the Taliban to resurge and giving these farmers a sense of hopelessness, so they have opted for an economic engine that they think is the only source of survival.

We've got to replace that mind-set, but we've also got to replace it with something concrete. I don't see that. I hope that you'd be able to send in writing sort of a methodical time frame of how the U.S government is looking towards solving this narcotics problem, with a substitution for these farmers that you view -- that might be successful and the time frame that your goals are toward being successful.

MR. SCHWEICH: I concur with your concerns about establishing the security down there so that we can make people not feel intimidated. But with respect to the actual poppy cultivation, the provinces that you see that are poppy-free or near poppy-free are the poorest provinces in Afghanistan. It doesn't seem to be associated so much with poverty anymore -- the growth of opium -- it seems to be associated with insecurity.

So that's why our new strategy focuses on rewarding those that remain poppy-free, but really looking more toward combining the security and the counternarcotics effort, so we're able to provide the security people need, so they don't feel they need to grow opium.

REP. JACKSON LEE: Well, I look forward to working with you, and I'm working on a restoration plan to hopefully put in legislation for Afghanistan.

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