CHILD SOLDIERS SENT INTO COMBAT HIGH ON DRUGS

World Body Slams Afghanistan's Opium Cultivation

UNITED NATIONS - Child soldiers fighting in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo are pumped with drugs to induce them to kill, a United Nations report
made public today reveals.

The world body's Security Council is debating whether to send more than
5,500 peace-keepers to the central African country to observe a ceasefire
that has been constantly violated since being declared last July.

Child soldiers in the west African country of Liberia are also sent into
combat while high on drugs, the report says. Fighting in many parts of the
continent, meanwhile, is financed by proceeds from illegal drug trafficking.

Issued by the UN's International Narcotics Control Board, the report
highlights trends in world drug use over the previous year. It also offers
the board's assessment of different countries' efforts in the international
fight against illegal drug trafficking.

As usual, Afghanistan came in for harsh criticism, but Iran received lavish
praise.

The board questions "the commitment of the Taleban in Afghanistan to ban
opium poppy cultivation and heroin manufacture."

Good weather in Afghanistan last year ensured a record crop of opium, with
some 4,600 tons harvested. This meant that Afghanistan now produces
approximately 75% of the world's supply of opium. Large-scale illicit
cultivation of the opium poppy has continued to spread to areas previously
unaffected in the country, the report says.

Only a week after elections in Iran, which saw a surge of backing for
reformers allied with moderate Mohammad Khatami, the president, the board
commends the country for having made "significant efforts to intercept
illicit consignments of opiates" exiting Afghanistan.

It notes that "more than 80% of seizures of opium worldwide" were carried
out by Iranian authorities, which had suffered "heavy human casualties and
made considerable financial sacrifices."

In other parts of Asia, the INCB laments the rapid spread of
amphetamine-type drugs across the whole Asia region, noting that China
remains a major source of the drugs.

In the Middle East, the INCB warns Lebanon that it risks harming its
political and financial systems if it allows drug traffickers to use its
bank secrecy laws to hide ill-gotten gains.

Turning to Europe, it says drug abuse is growing across the west of the
continent, and urges governments to do more to fight the scourge.

The report quotes a recent study showing that doctors in France prescribe
about four times more sedatives, hypnotics and tranquillizers than doctors
in Germany and Britain.

On the Americas, the INCB report notes the rise of Central America and the
Caribbean as key drug transit routes from South America -- where Colombia
remains the world's biggest cocaine producer -- to North America and Europe.

In Mexico, however, drug abuse was found to be "at a much lower level" than
in Canada and the U.S.

In Australia, the average age of first-time use of heroin has fallen below
18 years of age, the report says.

Traditionally, the report highlights trends in drug abuse. Last year it
launched a campaign to deter celebrities from promoting drugs as part of
popular culture.

This year the INCB highlights the need for the best pain relief drugs to be
more universally available, regretting that suffering caused by such
diseases as terminal cancer varies widely from country to country.