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UN anti-crime office to work with Collective Security Treaty Organization

UN anti-crime office to work with Collective Security Treaty Organization

A new agreement signed today between the United Nations and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) – comprising Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia and Tajikistan – paves the way for joint efforts to fight drug trafficking, terrorism and trans-border crime.

Under a Protocol signed today by the Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Antonio Maria Costa, and CSTO Secretary-General Nikolay Bordyuzha, the two organizations will develop joint projects on these issues and share information about their activities.

“CSTO Member States are no strangers to the security and health risks posed by drug abuse and drug trafficking,” Mr. Costa said. “Because of their proximity to Afghanistan, the world’s biggest supplier of heroin, they are on the front line of efforts to contain the spread of drugs from Afghanistan.”

The UNODC chief paid tribute to the CSTO’s “Operation Channel,” which he said had made substantial inroads into blocking drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Europe and Africa. In 2005 alone, more than 11 tons of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances were seized under this operation and thousands of cases were brought to court.

“You have done great work in seizing drugs and precursors, prosecuting drug-related crimes and seizing weapons and ammunition,” Mr. Costa told Secretary-General Bordyuzha.

Mr. Costa urged the six CSTO countries to reduce demand for drugs within their own borders and tackle the alarmingly high growth rates of HIV/AIDS among injecting drug users.

“We need to do more to educate people – particularly the young – about the dangers of drug abuse and we have to treat drug abuse in order to prevent an HIV/AIDS epidemic, particularly in prisons,” he said.