DUSHANBE, July 2, 2010, Asia-Plus — In a statement delivered at the 8th session of the CSTO Coordinating Council of heads of the competent authorities to counter drug traffic (KSOPN) in Dushanbe, the chief of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) Viktor Ivanov noted on July 2 that international community underestimates the drug threat emanating from Afghanistan.
According to him, events devoted to settlement of the situation in Afghanistan do not pay proper attention to the problem of the narcotics production for some reason. “While the narcotics production is one of the most serious factors affecting the situation in this country,” Ivanov said.
The London conference on Afghanistan that took place in January this year is a striking example of such indifference, he noted. “Of 34 points of the communiqué adopted at the conference, only one (Point 27) concerns the narcotics trade,” said the Russian drug control chief, “This indicates that either the leading circles of some countries of the world are not well aware or they just prefer to hold back.”
Moreover, even report by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that was published in June this year did not give a fundamental estimate of this phenomenon, he added.
The FSKN chief also noted that methods used to eradicate poppy plantations in Afghanistan are inefficient. “They use wittingly disadvantageous methods of manual mechanical eradication; only some 2,000 hectares are eradicated per year.”
