SCO focuses on Afghan drug threat

Group pledges to boost cooperation to tackle increasing menace

The six member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization have vowed to boost the fight against narcotics as drug trafficking from Afghanistan increases.

The last decade has seen drug production rise in Afghanistan and 1,800 tons of narcotics were produced in 2011, Muratbek Imanaliev Sansyzbaevich, secretary-general of the SCO, said at a regional anti-drug conference in Beijing on Monday.

"The drug issue in Afghanistan is posing a bigger threat to the region, and it is linked to terror organizations and organized crime," he said.

The SCO is a permanent intergovernmental organization formed in 2001 in Shanghai by the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People's Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Viktor Petrovichy Ivanov, director of Russia's Federal Narcotics Service, said the drug issue in Afghanistan is recognized as the main health and safety menace and funds generated by drug trafficking help sustain terrorists.

"Russia has a zero-tolerance policy toward drugs," he said.

It has been reported that Afghanistan accounts for 95 percent of international opium production and Ivanov called for a greater sharing of anti-drug intelligence.

"Real-time communication networks are needed to exchange information and SCO member states should assume the responsibility to destroy the conditions and infrastructure for drug proliferation in central Asia," he said.

SCO member states should cooperate better in the fight against drugs and organized crime, Zhang Xinfeng, vice-minister of public security, said at the meeting.

"We will enhance efforts to reduce the drug supply within SCO member states," Zhang said.

He also urged a publicity drive to warn about the dangers of drugs and champion the benefits of a healthy lifestyle.

Cooperation among member states has entered a new stage of development, Zhang said.

In 2011, SCO leaders approved two anti-drug plans at the summit in Astana. These plans covered, in detail, a range of issues, including mechanisms for member states to handle the drug threat from Afghanistan, addiction prevention and rehabilitation, as well as law enforcement cooperation.

From 2009 to 2011, China cracked down on 711 heroin cases in the Golden Crescent region, detaining 775 suspects and seizing 2,907.7 kilograms of various kinds of narcotics.

In 2009 alone, Chinese police smashed four maritime drug smuggling operations, and seized 1 ton of heroin produced in Afghanistan.

Vitaliy Orozaliev, chairman of the Kyrgyz State Service for Drug Control, told China Daily they will intensify cooperation with China, especially targeting border areas.

"We will establish a mechanism to share intelligence, assist in investigation, deal with repatriation and extradition, and retrieve assets across borders," he said.