WEDNESDAY
[ 31.10.2007 - 10:40 ]
Third Afghan Anti-drugs Conference Opens In Kabul
October 31, 2007 -- An international anti-drugs conference opened in Afghanistan today with an appeal for regional cooperation in the battle against the production and trafficking of opium in Central Asia.
 | | Narco-Mafia operating in Afghanistan with profits being used to finance insurgent groups. 30Oct2007 | | (UNAMA/Freshta Dunya) |
Government experts from 55 countries are meeting for two days in Kabul for the third conference of the "Paris Pact", a group set up in 2003 to counter the trade in Afghan illegal drugs. The United Nations says Afghan opium production has been rising recently, reaching a record high in 2007.
However, Afghanistan and its neighbors Pakistan and Iran signed an anti-drug agreement this year. The agreement "promises to be a very valuable initiative," said Vincent McLean, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime representative in Pakistan.
Last week, European parliament adopted a recommendation
that Afghanistan’s poppy crop should be used for production of pain-relieving medicines such as opium for developing countries.
Afghan poppy production has increased drastically in recent years and turned into most of the world's heroin and helps fuel the Taliban insurgency in the country. The World Bank estimates almost 40 percent of Afghanistan's economic activity is opium-related and the country supplies 93 percent of the world's opium.
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