DRUG SITUATION IN ECO REGION – ECO

ECO Secretariat Background Paper

8th Consultative Meeting of 

Executive Heads of Sub-Regional Organizations

 

Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) is a ten member inter-governmental regional organization with the aim to serve as an instrument for development of economic and social cooperation among its members constituting Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Uzbekistan. The combined population of all the countries in ECO is 320 million and it covers an area over 7 million square kilometers.

 

Out of its 10 members seven are land locked countries and their economies are considered in transition after decades of centralized planning and development under Soviet era. A member country in the region i.e. Afghanistan suffered civil war of horrific proportion and all that it entails. It is still a focus of (world) war against terrorism and situation is far from stable. The region is one of the poorest in the world and has the unenviable distinction of constituting largest single collection of hectares under poppy cultivation.

 

A nexus had long been recognized between trafficking in narcotics and crime, to which modern day terrorism has added a new ugly face. The region is under the assault of this triple menace since last two decades. It is now being increasingly realized that the three are mutually dependent for self-propagation. Dealing successfully with one can break this virulent cycle.

 

Narcotics cultivation is not new to the region rather it has a long history of production in Central Asia and Afghanistan.

 

In the Eurasian perspective, severe restriction in its cultivation in the civilized world led to its unrestricted growth in 'tribal areas' in Afghanistan where it had always been difficult to implement the writ of the government. The collapse of USSR, ensuing civil wars in Afghanistan and Tajikistan, consequent political upheavals in other Central Asian Countries, led to increase in poverty in the region to the unprecedented level in 90's. The decade marks the phenomenal rise in poppy cultivation in the region. Year 1999 saw the doubling of opium production from 1998. By 2000, according to UNODC 75% of world’s heroine supply was originating from opium cultivated in Afghanistan. Year 2001 saw the unprecedented drop in production of Afghan heroin to only 185 metric tons due to the ban on opium cultivation by Taliban government.  However, this year according to UNODC report 3600 metric tons of Afghan opium is expected to hit the market as a result of power vacuum after the fall of Taliban government. What the situation is in 2003 UNODC is still in the process to figure it out.

 

Symbiotic relationship between the illicit drug trade and international terrorism is now widely accepted.  In several cases direct links between drug money and groups classified as terrorists have been substantiated.  Therefore, the new international context in war on terrorism is also war on drugs.  The anti-terrorism strategy with respect to drug is: less drugs, less resources for terrorists.  Several countries have included the issue of drugs in their Anti-terrorism policy. Unfortunately, spread of HIV and other needle transmitted fatal diseases due to narcotics abuse have not received as much attention.

 

Leaders in ECO countries were not oblivious to unholy alliance between warlords in Afghanistan and drug dealers through out the region. Drug cartels were undermining their governments’ efforts and legitimate businesses, thus affecting adversely the overall economic and security situation in their countries. The pressure of mafia was felt throughout the region. Political groups that chose violence as a medium of their expression created militias and armed them with drug monies. New drug trafficking routes started emerging in the ECO region via Central Asia.  Border clashes became more violent between militarized police and drug gangs.

 

Owing to the ready availability of opium and locally manufactured acetic anhydride, heroin started being manufactured in Afghanistan as well. Ready availability of purified heroine created its own market amongst the most disadvantaged section of the society in ECO countries leading to further deterioration of economic and social condition in the regional countries.  It is estimated that the drug addicts population in the region is as high as in Europe and Russia combined.

 

Not only that infected needle wrecked havoc amongst the most downtrodden with the spread of Hepatitis and HIV/AIDS. The health cost alongwith political, social and economic cost touched new peak in 1999. The rough estimates of the cost in terms of money due to all these calamities each year ran over several billion dollars, to each country.

 

Each ECO member country has its own Law Enforcement Mechanism to deal with the threat posed by drug and drug financed terrorism. However, it was the desire of the leaders of member states that they should coordinate their activities to launch a region wide common front in the fight against narcotics.

 

The first step in this direction was taken when Council of Ministers included the issue as the major policy item in famous “Istanbul Declaration”. The same Council approved in 1996 a detailed 'Plan of Action' on Drug Control which asked for eradication of poppy crop, elimination of all heroin laboratories from ECO Region; as well as control of all psychotropic substances and chemical precursors of narcotics. The plan exclusively called for creation of a Drug Control Coordination Unit, as the name indicates, to coordinate activities of all anti-narcotic efforts in the region.

 

In line of this Action Plan, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with UNDCP. Accordingly, Phase 1 of establishing Drug Control Coordination Unit in the ECO Secretariat in Tehran was started in July 1999. As a result of this effort standard equipments were procured and installed in the ECO Secretariat; all Member States appointed their focal points for easy and prompt communication of information on drugs. A periodic reporting system on drugs was established and two training workshops were held to train the law enforcement officials of the member states. A website was also launched. After the success of first phase, 2nd phase started from December 1, 2002 this is building over the foundation laid by the 1st phase.

 

The drug issue and its implications in terms of both security and health related problems have a tremendous importance for the ECO region. The project will assist governments in ECO region initially in consolidating and later on, in widening its drug control policies and operational strategies. In particular, the second phase will result in the improvement of overall capabilities of national drug control agencies of ECO Member States in monitoring the drug issues both within their territories and in the region as a whole. Information on latest modus operandi used by traffickers, emerging drug trafficking trends, regional trends and data about internal consumption will be shared with specialized training to regional anti-narcotics officials to be able to include their national programs in the new regional setting.

 

Internationally also, most ECO member states ratified three UN conventions on narcotics whereas most of them already signed the 2000 Palermo Convention against trans-national organized crime.  Similarly, money laundering legislations are also being enacted by almost ECO countries.

 

It would be over simplistic to divide the world into exploiters and victims on the basis of who produces and who consumes. It is an acknowledged fact that drug money barely contributed in the economy of Afghanistan or other transiting countries in the ECO region. Most of it is immediately laundered and kept in secure accounts in Banks where customer confidentiality is jealously guarded.  Whatever little that stayed in ECO economies caused even greater destruction in the form of further fuelling the civil wars, corrupting legitimate businesses spreading HIV/AIDS etc. Case in point is farmers who cultivate opium in Afghanistan are barely able to make ends meet with their illicit crop. They are forced to grow opium only because it is the only crop which gave them access to credit (from drug dealers). And secondly due to civil wars and prolonged drought in Afghanistan, poor farmers were greatly indebted to such unscrupulous lenders. It is stated that out of billions generated worldwide through drug trade hardly a fraction finds its way into the economies of countries producing opium or used as transit. Needle borne infections like Hepatitis and HIV/AIDS due to drug abuse is another menace which is now outpacing regions of the world that have lately borne the major brunt of the disease.

 

In Central Asia and other ECO countries increasing number of impoverished people, who have no hope of rising from their abysmal economic states, are easy prey as couriers by drug dealers. These are the people who are willing to risk the harshest penalties imposed for drug trafficking-including the death penalty, for a chance for substantial financial reward. To quote Kyrgyz Chairman of the Commission on Drug Control in 1997, ‘In some regions, the only way to survive is to take part in drug trade’.

 

Today, even after cessation of open civil war and world involvement in Afghanistan’s affairs, the situation of drug production is still very scary and it is likely to remain a key source of financing all future conflicts between different warlords and for terrorist organizations in the region.

 

As long as drug production will remain a critical way to make ends meet for people in the midst of grinding poverty and devastation, drug production and trafficking would remain a factor, world has to deal with. If no effective measures are taken to deal with social and economic causes of drug production and its transit in neighboring countries, recent world efforts to restore Afghanistan amongst the comity of civilized countries would fail in the long run.

 

There is a need that all counter narcotics programmes to fit into larger societal picture. Narcotics trafficking should not be viewed as a law enforcement challenge alone, but as an overall development challenge.

 

As there are many drug control programs going on in the ECO region, it is concluded by saying that only those drug control programs are likely to meet with success that would: (a) involve rural communities and make access to credit easy for them;  (b) provide technical support in the form of teaching best agricultural practices to the farmers in poppy growing areas; and (c) help communities or groups on the fringes of society with no hope of rising from their state of despair from where not only most couriers are recruited but where the largest number of users come from.

   

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