TAJIK PRESIDENT OPENS CRIME COMMISSION, SIGNS AGREEMENT FOR NEW DRUG CONTROL AGENCY

Press Release
SOC/NAR/798

TAJIK PRESIDENT OPENS CRIME COMMISSION, SIGNS AGREEMENT FOR NEW DRUG CONTROL AGENCY

VIENNA, 27 April (UN Information Service) -- Tajik President Emomali Rakhmanov signed an agreement today with the Executive Director of the Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP), Pino Arlacchi, to set up a new drug control agency in Tajikistan, which should greatly boost its fight against illicit drugs.

The illicit trafficking of drugs -- en route from Afghanistan to Europe -- had become a huge problem in his country, Mr. Rakhmanov said, as he opened the annual meeting of the Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Vienna. It was the first time the president of a country had formally addressed the Commission.

"If no measures are taken in the near future, the trafficking situation may spin out of control", Mr. Rakhmanov told delegates attending the Commission, "Practically every day people cross the border from Afghanistan with illicit drugs."

He noted that 58 per cent of the world's total opium production came from Afghanistan, of which a sizeable proportion travelled through Tajikistan to Europe. Tajikistan had not only become a transit territory, but numerous drug laboratories were being set up along its 1,000 kilometres of borders, he stressed.

Mr. Arlacchi said the Tajik agreement was the beginning of a much closer cooperation with Tajikistan in the field of drug control. "The new agency, with over 300 staff members, will be in a position to effectively attack drug trafficking in Central Asia", he said.

The new facility -- the Tajik Drug Control Agency -- would be under the direct supervision of the country's president. Its main functions will be to document and curb regional drug trafficking, as well as collect and analyze incoming data. With a staff of highly qualified specialists, the Agency would "declare war, once and for all, on the drug mafia", Mr. Rakhmanov said.

The Agency will receive support and technical assistance from the ODCCP, which will assist in hiring and paying up to 350 employees for three years, provide communications and other equipment and help the Agency set up contacts with other States and organizations. * *** *