Pak-Iran efforts to continue for drugs

[CM]

Pak-Iran efforts to continue for drugs
eradication

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan and Iran will continue to co-operation and
coordinate in their efforts to eliminate and eradicate drugs from their
respective countries. This was the main thread of talks held between
Interior Minister Lt-Gen (retd) Moinuddin Haider and a two-member high
level Iranian delegation on Narcotics led by Muhammad Falah here on
Friday.

During the talks, the minister told the delegation that Pakistan's drive
against drugs had been appreciated and acknowledged worldwide. He
informed the delegation Pakistan is launching a campaign to rehabilitate
and detoxify drug-addicts with a close and useful cooperation of NGOs.
In this respect, a national conference of NGOs working in this field will be
convened very soon to evolve a more effective and comprehensive
strategy, he said. The minister and the delegation agreed that the
eradication of this menace must be given top priority in bilateral
relations.

Meanwhile, on the issue of Afghanistan, they called for regional
arrangement to help poppy growers in the war-ravaged country to
substitute opium poppy with other crops. The two sides were unanimous
on view that the international donors had left Afghans and there should
be a regional level arrangement to deal with the narcotics problem in
Afghanistan. Pakistan and Iranian officials also agreed to separate drug
issue from politics in case of Afghanistan.

=============================================

Very good, we should work towards more regional ties with Iran, Afghanistan, China, UAE, Oman etc.
We need their support to promote our trade.

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CROIRE A L'INCROYABLE

[Malik73]

CM this is an area in which Iran and Pakistan should work much closer together, and bring in Afghnaistan as an equal partner in the fight against the battle gainst drug trafficking. This three nation cooperation will greatly enhance trust between Iran and Adfghanistan, and eventaully bring added stability to this areas.

[CM]

Boy now YOU have been busy.
New computer at home, and you don't get no sleep huh???
Anyway, what i am stuck on, is that Should the CE stick to the internal or external issues.
The Internal part needs alot of help.
But so does the external one.
Iran is needed as a close ally.
We have this drug thing, but we need more.
And YES Afghanistan should be added, they are responsible for most of the drugs in the region.
But would Iran agree to it, with their animosity for the Taliban?

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CROIRE A L'INCROYABLE

[Andhra]

>> bring in Afghnaistan as an equal partner in the fight against the battle gainst
drug trafficking.<<

Malik, are you high when you posted this or something.
How can you ask drug traffickers to fight against drug trafficking ?
Also are you sure Afghans will listen to anybody ?

[Malik73]

Andhra for your attention:-

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/wor...00/1033729.stm

Taleban enforces poppy ban

Afghanistan is said to produce 75% of the world's opium

By Kate Clark in Kabul

Last year it was the world largest producer of the flower, which is used to make heroin.

The ruling Taleban announced in the summer a complete ban on poppy cultivation, but only now is it possible to assess whether that ban is being enforced.

In this deeply impoverished country, poppy farming has been one of the few ways to earn a decent income.

No other crop gives such a high return and many farmers, particularly those in debt, say they are desperate about the ban.

They say they have come under heavy pressure from dealers to defy it, but the authority of the Taleban is proving stronger.

Widespread ban

Officials have met with local elders to pass on the edict and the message that farmers have no choice but to comply.

Poppy farmers have been hurt by the ban

Only in one area that I visited, Shinwar, was there any talk of sowing poppies.

Shinwar is tribal and close to the border with Pakistan, one of the main transit points for opium on its way to the West.

But even here, with only one week to go before the sowing season ends, the fields were still bare.

No-one has yet taken the decision to defy the ban.

Locals said the governor of the eastern provinces, one of the most powerful Taleban leaders, had himself come to lay down the law.

World pressure

The Taleban have been severely criticised in the past for presiding over a huge increase in poppy production.

It was one of the factors leading to the imposition of United Nations sanctions a year ago and it is regularly cited as a reason why the Taleban shouldn't be recognised as a legitimate government.

UN aid projects are being closed down

Their announcement of a total ban was greeted mainly with scepticism.

But now it's clear that they are serious about eradicating poppy production, the international community will have to react.

Domestically, the ban will hurt the Taleban financially and possibly politically.

It hits the pockets of farmers and traders in some of the main Taleban-supporting areas of Afghanistan.

The leadership has said they are under a religious obligation to stop poppy farming.

They are worried that Afghan youths will become addicted and there has also been a suggestion that the drought which has devastated the country this year was divine punishment.

But it's Afghan farmers who are facing the brunt of reducing the world's heroin supply.

The Taleban don't have the resources to help them switch to other crops and funding problems have meant that UN aid projects to help farmers are being closed down at the end of the year.

[CM]

Actually Andhra, for your information.
The Taliban have cut 55% of the drug cultivation in the country.
That was last year.
When the new UN figures are out, there would be less drug production in Afghanistan.
Also drug tracfficking is a problem for all 3 nations and all of them should be involved to stop it.
And the Taliban does not do the cultivating.

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CROIRE A L'INCROYABLE

[Andhra]

If they don't cultivate, who is gonna feed those farmers.
As I understand industry,western education and infrastructure are virtually non-existent.
Pakistan is too poor to help.Is Iran going to underwrite all the expenses involved in showing an alternative living for them ?

Ultimately and this is a culture thing.Nobody had any success controling Afghans including Afghans themselves.
I think that is where all the well intentioned plans are going to bomb

[Malik73]

Andhra the UN have offered funding to Afghanistan to end the poppy crops, and so have the EU and the USA. They are very much interested in putting an end to this trade after all it helps their drug-addicted societies as well?

So why don't you think Iran wouldn't offer assistance as well? In fact if you knew anything of west/central Asian geo-politics then you would know that Iran has to have close relations with Afghanistan to ensure the rights of Afghan Shias, to have cloeser links with its Persian-speaking cousins of Tajikistan, and crucially trade links with Uzbekistan and Kirgizistan.

To achieve all this Iran NEEDS Afghanistan.

[This message has been edited by Malik73 (edited December 01, 2000).]