Something to talk about
Iran's losing war on drug trafficking could be a subject
of discussion with the U.S.
November 26, 2004
iranian.com
Dozens of drug enforcement officers are killed when
their patrol is ambushed by heavily armed drug traffickers. The
officers are
captured during the ambush and then executed.
I'm not talking about Colombia.
Drug-related deaths has been a fairly routine occurrence in eastern
Iran on the country's border with Afghanistan where the situation
is "close to a war," according to
Maria Costa, executive director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime
(UNODC).
Iran is the only country in the world where the expression
"war
on drugs" is indeed not a euphemism: 3,500 members of Iran's
armed forces, including two generals, have been killed in battles
with smugglers since 1979. Ten percent of Iran's armed forces
are directly involved in the war.
But outgunned and outspent by
ruthless adversaries who travel in Toyota Land Cruisers and 4x4
pickups equipped with anti-aircraft
guns and missiles, Iranian forces can only claim modest gains.
According to international agencies, Iran still manages to
interdict approximately 17 percent of drugs entering its territory,
a quantity exceeding that seized by all other countries in the
world combined. In fact, 54 percent of narcotics seizures worldwide
in 2001 were in Iran.
It is a losing war for Iran as
the country now tops the world in per capita illicit drug addiction,
according to the UNODC. In a country where heroin is cheaper than
cigarettes,
the official rate of addiction is declared to be 2 percent of Iran's
population. Experts however believe the actual rate to be much
higher as the government desperately tries to hide its
gradual defeat in the war against drugs.
Up to 90 percent
of the heroin consumed in Europe comes from Afghanistan. Yet international
aid in trying to stop the traffic through Iran has been very limited.
The EU partly contributes $17m a year to the UN, which mounts anti-drug
operations
with the
Iranian government. France has supplied 10 sniffing dogs and the
UK bulletproof vests.
But compared to the hundreds of millions
of dollars Iran is spending in combating drug traffickers, what
Tehran has been given to date is peanuts, say Iranian
officials. Captured traffickers have been found with the latest
communication and navigation equipment, as well as highly sophisticated
weaponry.
While traffickers shoot down Vietnam-era Iranian
army helicopters with US-made stinger missiles, any form of military
aid to Iran is ruled out because of continuing
restrictions on arms exports to the Islamic Republic.
Washington's unilateral sanctions
in fact have directly affected the fight against drugs in Iran.
And US intervention
in
Afghanistan has so far not dealt with this problem. Not only that,
but UNODC representative in Tehran, Antonio L. Mazzitelli,
is convinced that the intervention has made things worse, making
the opium crop more important for the 3.3 million Afghans who depend
on it for their livelihood.
There certainly is a contrast between
the help Iran is getting from Europe and the billion dollar aid
package Washington has sent to Colombia. Up till now, drugs consumed
in the United States have not come from Central Asia but from the
Golden Triangle further east, and
Latin America. So Washington has had nothing to gain by helping
Iran fight trafficking.
Yet the 2003 UN Global Illicit Drug Trends
report predicts a production shift of Heroin to Afghanistan as
progress continues to be made in the traditional hub of Southeast
Asia in eliminating the drug. With that in mind and the fact that
Central Asian heroine seizures have already been made in the US,
and the fact that Afghanistan produces 76 percent of the world's
opium, one would not be far off questioning our current policy
of disregard for collaborating with Iran on fighting drugs.
There
is some recognition internationally that Iran in the the front
line of the war on drugs, although this awareness has not translated
into any meaningful assistance. It is clear, though, that Iran,
left to its own devices, will lose the war.
Instead, the media is
constantly filled with almost exactly the same accusations against
Iran as were made against Baghdad. Conservative
Republicans refuse to let go of their demand to "take the
fight to Iran", and senior Bush Administration officials have
openly supported a policy of regime change in Tehran.
Dialogue and cooperation with Iran, at least on this topic, will
certainly create an understanding on both sides and create a basis
for a gradual improvement in political
relations and enhanced security for both parties. And a safe area
of cooperation with Iran would be of course the war against drugs
in Afghanistan.
Hence not only would the US revitalize real reforms
amidst Iran's
continual political tug-of -war while opening up the doors to further
solutions of existing problems, but would also help liberate the
world, including our streets and homes in America from an enemy
just as lethal, if not more lethal than terrorism itself.
.................... Spam?! Khalaas!
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