UN drugs office to send assessment mission to Kyrgyzstan

The UN office that deals with the illicit drug trade announced today that it will send a mission to Kyrgyzstan to assess what action can be taken to combat the trafficking of Afghan heroin in Central Asia.

The Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Yury Fedotov, said the mission was being set up in response to a 29 October request from the Kyrgyz authorities.

“Confronting the flow of illicit Afghan opium is of paramount importance for the security of the region,” Mr. Fedotov said. “Effective drug control in Kyrgyzstan would bolster UN-wide efforts to consolidate peacebuilding and conflict prevention.”

He added that after the mission, experts would draw up initial plans for a strategy to support Kyrgyzstan’s new drug control service.

The request for support from UNODC came from the head of the Kyrgyz State Service on Drug Control, Vitaly Kerimovich Orazaliev, who described increased drug trafficking in the country as an “alarming situation.”

Mr. Orazaliev said money from drug trafficking was used to finance “destabilizing forces and corruption” in the country.