Ban warning on Afghan drug trade as opium production soars

Feb 16, 2012, 13:15 GMT

Vienna - Afghanistan's growing drug trade was hampering its chances of stability and sustainable development, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said Thursday.

Afghanistan is the world's largest opium grower, and production jumped 61 per cent in 2011.

'We cannot expect stability when 15 per cent of Afghanistan's gross domestic product comes from the drugs trade,' Ban said.

'We cannot speak of sustainable development when opium production is the only viable economic activity in the country,' he added.

Representatives of nations engaged in the fight against the opium trade from Afghanistan were meeting in Vienna to step up their efforts ahead of the withdrawal of international forces from the country in 2014.

Officials from more than 55 countries of the so-called Paris Pact Initiative adopted a document calling for law enforcement agencies in countries surrounding Afghanistan to improve cooperation.

The document said that the flow of finances from drug trafficking should be followed and stopped more effectively, and that more should be done to halt the trade in chemicals used to turn opium into heroin.

Ban said Afghanistan should work harder to stop drug production and trade as it has one of the world's highest drug addiction rates and an HIV epidemic.

The Paris Pact was established in 2003 to combat the trafficking of drugs from Afghanistan to Europe.