DUSHANBE, October 6, Asia-Plus — The major part of Afghan border is not protected, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Antonio Maria Costa remarked at a CIS summit in Dushanbe on October 5.
According to him, opium cultivation has risen in Afghanistan and some 8,000 tons of opium has been harvested there, which is enough to produce some 1,000 tons heroin and this drug flow threatens the whole international community not only with spread of drug addiction and AIDS/HIV but also promotes increase in incomes of terrorists and extremists that, in turn, gives rise to instability throughout the world.
Mr. Antonio Maria Costa noted that 75 percent of Afghan drugs were cultivated in the most unstable southern provinces of the country, which are far away from Tajikistan and controlled by the Taliban.
“According to our estimates, some 20 percent of Afghan heroin is traveling through Central Asia, which is approximately more than 200 tons,” the UNODC executive director said, noting that only 4 percent Afghan drugs traveling through Central Asia being seized.
He pointed to the necessity of taking measures to eliminate opium cultivation in Afghanistan through improving security and the rule of law, strengthening justice system and developing agrarian sector in the country.
Drug trafficking is the problem of not only Afghanistan but the whole international security, and interaction of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and other international organizations should yield efficient results, he said.
