CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS, UN LAUNCH SUBREGIONAL DRUG CONTROL PLAN

Press Release
SOC/NAR/741

CENTRAL ASIAN REPUBLICS, UN LAUNCH SUBREGIONAL DRUG CONTROL PLAN

VIENNA, 29 April (UN Information Service) -- Faced with the mounting problem of simultaneous increase in the production, the trafficking and the abuse of illicit drugs, five Central Asian Republics, with the assistance of the Vienna-based United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP), decided to complement their national efforts and join forces to combat drug problems through a subregional approach.

Foreign Ministers of Kazakstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are meeting in Tashkent on 4 May to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the UNDCP on joining efforts to combat illicit production, trafficking and abuse of drugs in their respective subregion of Central Asia. Signing on behalf of the Programme will be UNDCP Executive Director Giorgio Giacomelli.

Climatic conditions in Central Asia are very favourable for the growth of opium poppy and cannabis, both with high alkaloid content, as well as for the harvesting of ephedra, which is used in the production of artificial stimulants. Total area under illicit opium poppy cultivation is estimated at around 2,000 hectares, capable of producing over 30 tons of opium. Prior to the official ban in 1974 on opium poppy cultivation, Kyrgyzstan alone was supplying 16 per cent of all opium licitly produced in the world.

In addition to the locally produced illicit drugs, large amounts of opium, heroin and hashish are trafficked into Central Asia from Afghanistan, mainly across the border in the barely controlled mountainous Gorno-Badakhshan province of Tajikistan, and also across Afghanistan's border with Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan. In view of the practically non-existent controls on borders between the members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Central Asian subregion has turned into a new route for illicit transit of drugs from South-West Asia to the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Belarus and the subsequent traffic in those drugs to eastern and western Europe. Another route now leads from Central Asia to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia and further -- to Turkey. Consequently, the traditionally known Balkan Route has been considerably modified following the use by traffickers of new routes in Central Asia for their illicit drug transit operations.

Drug traffickers and criminal organizations have exploited the vulnerability of the countries of the Central Asian Republics caught in the process of democratic and economic reform. Their opportunistic and ruthless methods have left law enforcement agencies unequipped and ill-prepared to face the threat posed to national security. The opportunities provided by the privatization of the economy have been seized by criminal organizations to launder their illicit proceeds.

The governments of the Central Asian Republics are fully aware of the negative impact that illegal drug activities have on the overall socio- economic development. Anti-drug measures have recently been put on the agenda by the respective governments. To date, all of the target countries have been steadily moving towards coherent and balanced ways of stemming drug-related crime. However, the overall experience in addressing the drug control issues and the resources available for such activities are far from being adequate to prevent and halt the impact of the rapidly increasing drug-related crime in the subregion.

Following a UNDCP fact-finding mission to the subregion in 1992 and the visit of the UNDCP Executive Director to Central Asia in 1994, the Programme launched a number of technical assistance projects to pave the way for the establishment of subregional drug control cooperation.

By the outset of 1995, it has become clear both to the governments of the Central Asian Republics and to the UNDCP that an adequate response to the rapidly growing drug phenomenon in all countries of the subregion could best be provided through coordinated and combined efforts.

The Memorandum represents both a culmination of ongoing efforts by the UNDCP and the Central Asian countries to enhance regional cooperation and a political basis for future concrete projects on a range of drug-related issues. The UNDCP, which has maintained a regional office in Tashkent since 1993, has been putting the countries' law enforcement and other officials together with technical experts and advisers with the aim of strengthening national drug-control regimes and paving the way for further subregional cooperation in the drug field.

Practical joint efforts among the five countries will take the form of a subregional drug-control cooperation programme, an initiative developed jointly with the Central Asian governments and the UNDCP. Over a time span of three years (1996-1999), the programme will put a priority on institution building, law enforcement, and supply-and-demand reduction. The entire first phase is budgeted at $3,380,000.

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Because of the vulnerability of the region due to the growing problems of production, trafficking and abuse and the weaknesses in the control regimes, the projects will encompass such tasks as: assistance in formulating new national legislation to combat drug-related problems; reliable assessment of the drug situation; improving data collection, processing and sharing; enhancing law enforcement, including cross-border cooperation amongst national law enforcement agencies; mapping and monitoring illicit cultivation; developing environmentally safe methods for eradicating illicit poppy and cannabis; strengthening demand reduction; and upgrading relevant skills among those engaged in drug control.

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