Above: Opium in Pakistan Map

Two Diplomats from Europe Michael Semple the E.U.’s deputy head of the EU mission in Afghanistan and Mervyn Patterson the U.N.’s representative in Afghanistan were expelled from the country whilst visiting the Helmand province of Musa Qala only recently taken from Taliban control by a coalition of UK, EU and Afghanistan forces.

Brief history of Michael Semple:

Has been involved in campaigning for aid for Afghanistan to avoid famine, poverty, corruption and tirany in his time travelling with the Afghan people. He is widely regarded as being the most locally adept and involved Westerner to visit Afghanistan. He is the one of the most recognised authorities in the understanding of the tribal hierrarchy of Afghanistan, outside of the tribal people themselves obviously.

Brief history of Mr. Patterson:

Mr. Patterson wrote a book about land ownership and tennure in Afghanistan and also has a broad and varied knowledge of Afghanistan.

A spokeswoman for the EU’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana, whose office employs Mr Semple, said talks were ongoing. “We are in diplomatic contact with the Karzai government regarding Mr Semple and we expect that we will have an outcome of this situation in hours or in a day or so at the maximum,” she said. “This is nothing to be alarmed about. Our impression is that this is a misunderstanding…… We are in discussions. He might have to leave, or he might be able to stay.” She said Mr Semple was not a full-time EU official, but a senior adviser to the EU’s representation office in Kabul who was employed on contract. Mr Semple pictured below, whose family live in Pakistan, is paid by the Irish Government, he is under the day-to-day control of senior European officials involved with improving stability and security namely the “EU mission in Afghanistan,” his superior is EU special representative for Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell (Left) pictured here below with Amabassador in Afghanistan from the U.K. Sherard Cowper-Coles (Middle) and Semple (Right)

The Area of Hemland and why the officials were in the area

Hemland an area rife with Opium and the related crime problems that come with it.

It is believed that a lot of the opium farmers came from the province of Nimroz which had a 1370% increase in Heroin production as Helmand is even more remote and poorly policed. For instance 2 Police officials were killed by an explosion on the 4th October 2006 after carrying out searches for Opium on seperate farms. It was never confirmed wether they hit a landmine or it was a car bomb. Either way it was not an accident. On the same day the farmers of the Hemland province about 400 of them instucted the British legal firm of Leigh Day and Co. to lodge a civil action on their behalf stating breach of contract with the U.K. Government. No more information on this deal seems to be easily available. Paul Flynn explains about a previous deal which fell through with these farmers in a debate within West Minster, advising he had to get more info by using the freedom of information act , this info is from his own website. This was published some time in this year 2007. Paul Flynn M.P. - “We see now, however, that we have not secured a double victory but, if anything, a double catastrophe. We have been reminded of the drugs situation. Not only has Britain taken the lead, but the spending will increase to more than £200 million—we have spent more than £100 million already,

£21 million of which has disappeared without trace and greatly antagonised the Taliban farmers. It was meant to be paid to them in compensation, but it disappeared in what for the past two centuries has been the endemically corrupt system of government in Afghanistan—there is a long history of that. Freedom of information investigations have turned up some of the documents that were needed for the farmers whose crops were destroyed in 2003 to receive the compensation due to them.

Above: Taliban taking a rest.

These farmers kept their side of the deal and eradicated their crops, but the British Government did not keep their word,’ said Mohammad Gull, a local representative from the Sharwali District in Helmand who was involved in the initial negotiations with the British representatives. ‘In our culture this is very dishonorable and we are very angry.’

In an annual survey of opium production released yesterday, the UN reported that Helmand province had produced 48 per cent more opium compared to its record-breaking crop last year. Opium production in Afghanistan as a whole will reach a “frighteningly new level” at 8,200 tons, 34 per cent higher than last year, the report said.

This is the reason more than likely why these two were in the area, to calm down the people on the ground. Possibly this is why a spokesman for President Hamid Karzai said they were “involved in some activities that were not their jobs”.

Above: President Hamid Karzai

One of the members of the party travelling with Mr. Semple and Mr. Patterson had 20,000 $, considering the annual wage in the region is 50$ per year then this would be enough to pay off a small village or possibly a small band of farmers more than likely though this money was simply there to enable them to travel freely through the countryside which is heavily corrupt and dangerous. Also, it was an Afghan person who was carrying the money which may mean that neither of the officials knew about it but that’s unlikely to be fair. These two officials were not strangers to the area.

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