Examination of Witnesses (Questions 100-101)
RT HON
DES BROWNE
MP, MR MARTIN
HOWARD, LIEUTENANT
GENERAL NICK
HOUGHTON CBE AND
MR PETER
HOLLAND
20 MARCH 2007
Q100 Linda Gilroy: The Secretary
of State mentioned that what you are trying to create is a tipping
point where you get the local community behind the alternative
livelihood, the drive towards legality, and there is a House of
Commons research paper which quotes an ABC News survey
of December 2005 that shows how exactly that could be achieved
because the vast majority of people say if there are alternative
livelihoods then they think that there should be no drugs crop,
it is only one in twenty who would support it in that situation.
Is there any more recent surveying of the population and their
attitude towards this, and could it be made available to the Committee
if so.
Mr Holland: There are some fairly
regular surveys; the BBC World Service has done a survey
relatively recently which shows similar sorts of patterns. It
varies across the country; it is more acceptable to grow poppy
in the South than it is in other parts of the country but, yes,
we can make that available.[5]
Chairman: The final question on narcotics,
Adam Holloway.
Mr Holloway: I totally accept what the
Secretary of State says about there needing to be the threat of
eradication, but is not what we are doing by being involved in
this process actually playing into the hands of Taliban information
and operations. Secondly, how successful is this process?
Chairman: We have had the answer to the
first question.
Q101 Mr Holloway: Eradication is
now being done much, much closer to Lashkar Gah than last year,
done much more widely; is that because of the deteriorating security
situation?
Mr Holland: It is actually being
done much better this year in the areas where livelihoods are
assessed to exist. Last year it was actually done in areas where
they did not exist, and that was a real problem because you were
essentially eradicating very poor farmers. The areas that are
being eradicated are those where alternatives are already assessed
to exist.
Chairman: That is very helpful, thank
you. Secretary of State, we will write to you—because I
am afraid we have pretty much run out of time—about the
ARRC and the ISAF headquarters, how it fulfilled its objectives
and what role we have in ISAF X, but in the meantime may I say
thank you very much indeed, not only for coming this morning and
giving such helpful answers and for keeping them as brief as we
permitted you to be, but also for committing yourself to come
again in May which we will look forward to. Gentlemen, thank you
all very much indeed.
5 Not printed
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