The United Nations plans to launch several programs aimed at fighting drug trafficking in Afghanistan and neighboring states by the end of 2011, the executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said on Monday.
"Central Asian states, including Kyrgyzstan, remain a large trafficking hub for Afghan drugs," Yury Fedotov told journalists during a visit to the headquarters of the newly established State Drug Control Service in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek.
"We are planning to launch new regional anti-drug programs in Afghanistan and neighboring countries by the end of the year," he said.
Kurmanbek Bakiyev, who was ousted as Kyrgyzstan's president during a popular uprising in April 2010, dissolved the country's Drug Control Agency in October 2009, handing over its functions to the interior and health ministries.
The new Kyrgyz authorities made a decision to restore the anti-drug watchdog after Bakiyev's ouster. The United Nations is planning to spend more than $3 million to support the agency, Fedotov said.
Afghan drug production increased dramatically after the U.S.-led invasion toppled the Taliban in 2001, and Russia has been one of the most affected countries, with heroin consumption rising steeply.
About 90 percent of heroin consumed in Russia is smuggled from Afghanistan via former Soviet republics, including Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Around 30,000 Russians die from heroin abuse every year.
Russia has criticized the U.S.-led international coalition in Afghanistan for not doing enough to curb drug trafficking, particularly for refusing to destroy opium poppy fields. Opium production is a major source of income for Afghanistan's impoverished rural population, as well as for Taliban militants.
BISHKEK, April 25 (RIA Novosti)
