ECO CHIEF DENOUNCES REGIONAL DRUG-TRADE

BISHKEK. (IRNA) -- The Iranian head of the Economic Cooperation
Organization (ECO), Abdurrahim Govahi raised ECO's concerns over drug trade
and gun-running from Afghanistan to other countries in the region.

He told IRNA that the ECO has arranged plans with the United Nations and
other international bodies to fight this scourge of mankind.

An ECO member, Iran blames hardline Taliban militia for high rate of
drug-producing in Afghanistan which borders Iran from the east.

The Taliban, whose puritanical brand of Islam has been rejected by most
Muslim countries, came to power in 1996 with Pakistani backing and now
control some 90 percent of the country.

The militia is a Pashtun ethnic movement with significant support among
Pakistan's western Pashtun tribes and fundamentalist religious groups.

Iran is on the crossroads of major drug producers Afghanistan and Pakistan
and the lucrative markets of European and oil-rich Arab states.

It also suffers from a domestic drug-abuse problem. Its population of 63
million counts a growing number of addicts and drug users as well as drug
traffickers.

The country's drug problem has lately been increased by a growing spate of
kidnapping of villagers in border regions which led to the decision to seal
off its border with Afghanistan in May of this year.

Over 700 traffickers and some 175 police officers were killed in armed
clashes near Iranian borders in 1999, according to government figures.