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 The continuing civil strife in Afghanistan have created conditions in the past decade that have boosted Afghanistan into a position as the world's largest producer of illicit opiates. In terms of sheer production volume, it is rivalled only by Myanmar in SE Asia. It harvests 50 times more opium than Pakistan.
Pakistan has been a producer of opium for export since the time of Muslim rule and the later British empire. Beginning in 1979, large-scale heroin production has also taken place in the country. Following the enforcement of Hadd Ordinance in 1979, poppy cultivation and resultant opium production declined steeply in Pakistan until the mid 1980s when the possibility of tremendous profits pushed up the cultivation.
Cannabis is also produced in large quantities in the sub-region, but complete information is not available. Most of the cannabis trafficked in the region originates in Afghanistan. It tends to be processed in the inaccesable areas of Pakistan's Orakzai and Kurram agencies and the Tirah area of Khyber agency. It then travels by caravan through the tribal areas bordering NWFP in the direction of Baluchistan for transportation out of the country via Iran or the Mekran coast. If processed in Afghanistan the most likely outbound route is via the Central Asian Republics in trucks or containers.
Trafficking ProblemsProcessing and trafficking problems affect the region and the wider world beyond. Most processing takes place in small, mobile laboratories in the Afghan-Pakistan border areas although increasing instances of processing on the Afghan border with the Central Asian Republics have been reported. The subregion itself has become a major consumer market for opiates produced. Opiate processing on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghan border has created a trafficking and, importantly in the case of Pakistan, a drug abuse problem especially since the early 1980s.
Europe, and to a lesser degree the United States of America, are destinations for the higher grade of heroin opiates exported from this region. In the recent past, there has been some success in suppressing heroin laboratories in the tribal areas of Pakistan (especially Khyber and Mohmand agencies). The new drug production and processing areas which are emerging in the Central Asian Republics when combined with the displacement of trafficking northward from Afghanistan, to Russia and to the European market represent a serious development.
Drug AbuseWhile estimates on the extent of drug addiction in Afghanistan are not available, reports indicate a serious problem (a) among the Afghan refugee population in Pakistan, (b) in the Afghan province of Badakshan (c) among returning refugees in Kabul and (d) among the Turkmen tribes of North Afghanistan. Hashish, opium and heroin seem to be the preferred drugs among the male population.
Pakistan is one of the countries hardest hit by narcotics abuse in the world. According to national drug abuse surveys, the number of chronic abusers of heroin increased from about 20,000 in 1980 to more than 1.5 million in the late 1990's.
Drugs in the region are mostly ingested orally; heroin is usually smoked or the smoke is inhaled. In Pakistan, a small number of heroin injection cases have begun to emerge in the Karachi area. This practice -- previously unknown in the subregion -- has been observed in recent studies and raises concerns about the increase risk of transmitting blood-borne diseases, such as hepatitis and HIV/AIDS, through the process of needle sharing.
The Role of UNODC in the RegionUNODC's office in Islambad is responsible for assisting the Governments of the region in planning, implementing and coordinating drug control policies and strategies. Particular emphasis is placed on encouraging and promoting cooperation in drug control matters.
The activities of UNODC in the countries of the South-west Asia Region were focused throughout 1980s on supply reduction through integrated rural development or alternative development projects. The changing nature of the drug problem and lessons learned have however led to reorientation of the programme.
In the past decade more emphasis has been placed on demand reduction, combatting against illicit drug trafficking and supporting collaboration between countries of the region. While increased attention will be given to demand reduction, law enforcement and regional drug control collaboration, support to the supply reduction activities, particularly in Afghanistan will be continued.
UNODC programme and project activities focus on the following areas: a. Supply Reduction -- support to the implementation of alternative development activities which provide new, legal sources of income to the poppy farmers in order to induce them to cease cultivation of an illicit substance.
Over the past five years, UNODC has been working in opium-producing provinces of Afghanistan through the Drug Control and Rural Rehabilitation project implemented out of Peshawar. The nature and scope of UNDCP's supply-reduction interventions in Afghanistan are taking shape following an extended review of the best strategy to adopt in this particularly difficult setting. A 4-year US$17m programme began in 1997. The programme continued the annual poppy crop surveys which UNODC has undertaken since the 1993/94 season.
Over the past few years, the Government of Pakistan with the assistance of the international community, has been able to isolate and restrict poppy cultivation to three areas in the NWFP: Dir district, Bajaur agency and Mohmand agency. Having started alternative development assistance to Dir in 1985 -- at which time the focus was heavily infrastructure-oriented -- UNODC continues to provide area and community development assistance in the district.
Ongoing liaison and cooperation occurs with the United States, the other main donor, in providing assistance to Bajaur and Mohmand. UNODC also continues to support the Special Development Unit of the NWFP Planning Department which is responsible for overall coordination and monitoring of poppy-eradication projects in Pakistan.
The experience of UNODC in South-west Asia demonstrates that development assistance is a necessary -- but by itself insufficient -- instrument for the successful reorientation of poppy-growing farmers away from illicit cultivation. Self-enforcement has not been seen to work. Law enforcement is therefore essential in the domain of production and trafficking of illicit narcotic substances.
UNODC's aim is to support legitimate efforts to enforce the laws against the cultivation, production and trafficking of illicit narcotic and psychotropic substances. However, following years of war and the resultant virtual collapse of the civil state and of national institutions, enforcement initiatives in the Afghan context are particularly difficult.
In view of the precarious situation in Afghanistan, UNODC has sought to concentrate, rather, on supporting law enforcement cooperation initiatives in the states bordering the region's major producer. Considerable attention has been placed, to date, on strengthening drug law enforcement interdiction capacities on the joint Pakistan / Iran border and supporting similar efforts of the Central Asian Republics lying just to the north of Afghanistan.
Pakistan has suffered since the early 1980s, in a largely supply-driven explosion in abuse of opiates. As a consequence, demand reduction has become top priority for the Government of Pakistan in its fight against illicit drugs -- a fact reflected in its newly formulated Masterplan. This represents a considerable shift from the earlier heavy reliance on supply reduction and interdiction imperatives.
UNODC's strategy is therefore to ensure the consolidation of the achievements of the first phase of the Integrated Drug Demand Reduction Project (1991-96) which provided high-level technical inputs into the Government's efforts in awareness-creation, preventive education, treatment and rehabilitation and workplace reduction efforts.
In Afghanistan, drug demand reduction activities have been carried out in the previous five years within the framework of UNODC's Drug Control and Rural Rehabilitation project. Emphasis was placed on awareness creation. Other programmes continued this emphasis, and made a significant contribution in the areas of treatment, rehabilitation and aftercare of drug dependent persons.
Sub-regional CooperationUNODC believes that intensified collaboration between the countries of the subregion has a great potential to make monitoring of cross border movements more effective and to provide a basis for improved control of illicit drug trafficking. A principal objective of UNODC is to complement its current country programmes for Pakistan and Afghanistan with the establishment of effective subregional cooperation in drug control matters.
UNODC has worked with the countries in the region to formalize subregional initiatives between Pakistan and both Iran and India. In 1994 Pakistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Iran and UNODC to control drug trafficking across the border. In the same year, an agreement was signed with India to control the cross border smuggling of precursors and narcotics. The development of regional plans for drug control under the auspices of ECO and SAARC should significantly enhance the extent of sub regional cooperation.
UNODC has signed memoranda of understanding with both organizations, and discussions regarding the establishment of a regional drug control mechanism continue. |
