First drug interdiction unit established

Afghanistan’s first drug interdiction unit came a step closer to realisation with the interior ministry and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) signing an agreement to establish the department within the ministry. "This is the first interdiction unit to be established. The government is very supportive of this project," Adam Bouloukos, UNODC's deputy representative, Adam Bouloukos told IRIN from the Afghan capital, Kabul, on Tuesday, stressing that stopping drug trafficking was in everyone’s best interest. "We are building the department from scratch. It is going to be a very comprehensive project with its main function being to stop trafficking," he said. UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa and Interior Minister Ali Ahmad Jalali signed the agreement on Sunday. "This is only the latest step in a continuous efforts to assist Afghanistan in creating conditions for effective drug control. Major progress has been made recently with the creation of a new counter-narcotics directorate and the adoption of a national drug control strategy," Costa said after the signing. "Now we need to increase international assistance to help the country strengthen its capacity to enforce the law and help Afghan farmers to develop a sustainable alternative livelihood," he added. The UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention found in its 2002 Afghanistan Poppy Survey that Afghanistan was the largest source of illicit opium and heroin in the world. With the establishment of the interdiction department, it is hoped that this trend will stop. Costa will stay in Kabul for a week but, during his time in Afghanistan, he is also scheduled to visit opium-producing provinces. "This is a periodic visit where Mr Costa has been meeting with government officials and donors to see how the national drug campaign programme is progressing," Bouloukos noted, adding that by meeting local officials, Costa hoped to identify the most effective ways UNODC could contribute towards the fight against narcotics. One of the most important meetings Costa has had was with President Hamid Karzai, during which they discussed the need to develop infrastructure in rural areas and the assistance which was required to help farmers grow commercial crops, with the international community’s role also figuring prominently. "Today [Monday], Mr Costa is in Feyzabad in Badakhshan Province in the northeast to open a regional office with the Counter Narcotics Directorate. In two months we will be opening one in Herat and the northern province of Mazar," Bouloukos said. "These regional offices are very much a joint operation with the Counter Narcotics Directorate, right down to sharing office space," he stressed. UNODC currently has 20 projects operating in Afghanistan worth US $38 million. The programmes concentrate on monitoring, prevention, demand reduction and alternative development.