(CP) - Canadian politicians and military leaders are rejecting a British report suggesting both troops and Afghan civilians are being killed because of Canada's backing of failing U.S. policies on elimination of the opium poppy crop.
The poppy eradication campaign has driven rural farmers into such extreme poverty that they are shifting their support to the Taliban as the international community and the Afghan government fail to meet their basic needs, says the report by the London-based Senlis Council.
"Canadian troops have been handed an impossible mission which can only lead to significant casualties," says the report, released Wednesday.
"Until Canada fundamentally re-evaluates its approach and creates its own new strategy for its presence in Kandahar, with a clear split from the failed U.S. policies there, the Canadian mission in Afghanistan is blindly following a path that will lead to senseless military and civilian casualties."
But Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said Canada isn't blindly following anyone.
"Our eyes are wide open. We know what we're doing over there," O'Connor said in Edmonton on Wednesday.
O'Connor acknowledged poppy eradication is a tough sell in a country where its cultivation is often the only form of livelihood.
"We have to find some way to compensate the farmers," he said. "I believe that if you're going to destroy somebody's crop, you have to give them compensation."
Prime Minister Stephen Harper defended Canada's activities in the war-ravaged country.
Canada is working to eliminate the threat of terrorism, but also wants to eliminate drug trafficking which is causing problems in our streets, he said in Ottawa.
"For that reason we support the efforts of the international community to eradicate drug production," Harper said.
"Of course, we're not directly involved in the eradication of the growing of poppies, but we do support those efforts and we support the efforts of providing alternatives to people."
Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Rick Hillier described the report as the work of drive-by experts.
"One of the thing that I found when I was the commander on international operations was the most dangerous thing of all was the individual who visited the theatre of operations for 48 hours and then left as instant experts with the solution to everything, which invariably was wrong," he said from Edmonton Garrison.
"We don't have everything right in Afghanistan. We know that. Each day we change the way we do business just a little bit and we'll continue to do that until the day we come home from that mission."
The report also accuses the Canadian military of accidentally killing innocent civilians during security sweeps.
But Lt.-Col. Ian Hope, commander of the Princess Patricia's battle group in Kandahar, said not a single Afghan civilian has been killed in all the firefights Canadian troops have had with Taliban in the region.
Hope said Kandahar's minor poppy eradication doesn't involve Canadians and is having nowhere near the negative impact set out in the report. He called the report a political document steeped in anti-Americanism.
But at least one observer said that Canada had made mistakes in its drug policy in Afghanistan.
"It was stated to me by the senior diplomats or bureaucrats involved with Afghanistan that Canada certainly had made some very serious errors," said Sunil Ram, a former Canadian soldier who now teaches at the American Military University in Virginia.
"This especially focused on the issues of the drug trade, which Canada very judiciously ignored even dealing with."
Opium poppies, which do not require irrigation in the drought-stricken region, represent a huge chunk of the local economy.
The drug harvest brings in 10 times more money to impoverished villagers than a crop of wheat.
The Senlis Council favours dealing with the poppy problem by making the crop legal, controlling its harvest and directing it into the world's medical supply of opiate drugs.
United Nations drug officials have dismissed that plan as unrealistic until great advances are made in security in the war-torn country.
O'Connor also said Canadian soldiers have a good rapport with Afghan civilians.
"The reports I've been receiving from the Kandahar area is that Canadians are quite popular there and the villagers accept us quite readily," he said.
Canada's efforts to help rebuild Kandahar's economy are also criticized by the council.
The report says 10 months of Canadian presence in southern Afghanistan has failed to improve development, including the efforts of the Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar City.
The Senlis Council, which receives its funding from non-profit foundations in Europe, plans to distribute its report to every member of Parliament in Canada, said spokesman Jorrit Kamminga.
The council hopes the report will stimulate debate among Canadians about the country's role in southern Afghanistan.
when I have the time. It's always interesting to get information from sources other than the mass media.