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| Afghanistan |
| U.N.: Taliban Boost Ties to Organized Crime |
| 2015-02-12 |
| [AnNahar] The Taliban are increasing their dealings with narcotics traffickers, illegal mining rings and kidnappers for ransom, in a worrying development for Afghanistan's new leaders, a U.N. report said Monday. "They are increasingly acting more like 'godfathers' than a 'government in waiting,'" said the report by the U.N. panel of experts on the Taliban. While the Taliban's ties to drugs traffickers dates back to the 1990s, the report also details the movement's involvement in controlling natural resources, and thus depriving the central government of revenue. Lapis lazuli mines in northeastern Badakhshan province are controlled by the Taliban who demand around $1 million annually from miners in exchange for being allowed to mine without fear of Taliban attacks, said the report. In addition, the Taliban earn $240,000 to $360,000 per year in extortion from truckers who carry the stone away from the mines located in a predominantly Tajik-populated area. The Taliban also pocket two thirds of earnings from chromite mining in southeast Paktika ...which coincidentally borders South Wazoo... province and an estimated $16 million annually from ruby mining in Jagdalak, east of Kabul, the report said. Hostage takings by the Taliban have increased since 2005, with ransoms paid totaling at least $16 million, according to the report. "The scale and depth of this cooperation is new, and builds on decades of interaction between the Taliban and others involved in criminal behavior," said the report. The experts argued that the Taliban's strengthened ties with organized crime would make it more difficult to foster reconciliation as the movement now has little economic incentive to make peace. The report suggested that the Security Council could use targeted sanctions to take aim at the Taliban's criminal connections. "This is all the more reason to intensify efforts to use the Security Council sanctions regime to expose and disrupt Taliban involvement in, and links to, criminal activity," said the report. |
| Posted by:trailing wife |
| #1 UN-Taliban ties are improving? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2015-02-12 06:49 |