UN Goes High-Tech in Drugs War

UNITED NATIONS, Feb 21 (IPS) - The United Nations is using latest space
technology in a new drive against illegal drug producers around the world.

The Vienna-based UN Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) is collaborating with
the European Space Agency (ESA) in deploying satellites to track illicit
crops worldwide.

''This is an entirely new project,'' says UN Under-Secretary- General Pino
Arlacchi, who is both head of UNDCP and the UN Office for Crime Prevention.
''We are doing it for the first time - and we hope to use satellite imagery
to collect very precise data on cultivation of narcotic crops.''

Arlacchi told reporters Friday that traditionally the UNDCP has collected
its data through aerial and ground surveys -''but this has not been done in
coordinated fashion,''

Since satellite monitoring is a politically sensitive issue, all data
collected by the ESA will be shared with countries under surveillance, he
said. ''The United Nations will be co-owners of the data,'' Arlacchi said.

The exercise will be jointly funded by the European Commission, the ESA,
UNDCP and several donor nations.

Nandasiri Jasentuliyana, Director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs,
says that space technology already is being deployed for the protection and
management of the environment, as well as for the enhancement of education
and medical services through tele-education, and tele-medicine.

Satellites are to be used in other new areas, he said, particularly to
monitor illicit drugs and also detect anti-personnel landmines.

In June last year, the UN General Assembly approved a global strategy to
fight drugs at a three-day Special Session on the World Drug Problem.

The 185-member General Assembly pledged to signficantly reduce the demand
for and supply of illicit drugs by the year 2008. The Assembly also adopted
a political declaration on principles of demand reduction to guide
governments in setting up effective drug prevention, treatment and
rehabilitation programmes.

Arlacchi said that following the UN special session, UNDCP has made
significant progress in raising funds and sharply reducing demand for drugs.

At a conference in Brussels last year, donor nations pledged more than 270
million dollars for the anti-drug programme in Peru. The money will be
earmarked mostly for eliminating coca cultivation and to provide alternate
crops, he said.

According to Arlacchi, UNDCP is vigorously pursuing an elaborate plan to
eliminate coca cultivation in three Latin American nations: Peru, Colombia
and Bolivia.

A meeting of donors is to be held in Paris later this year to raise money
for an anti-drug programme in Bolivia. Arlacchi also plans to visit
Colombia soon to discuss plans for cultivation of alternate crops in that
country. These include coffee, fruits and rubber plants.

Arlacchi said in Peru there has been a 55 percent decline in coca
cultivation over a period of three years. In Bolivia there has been a 20
percent decline in one year, he said.

''We have been offering viable alternate crops. That is the primary reason
for significant reductions in coca cultivation,'' he noted. Moreover, there
has been a 50 percent drop in coca prices within the last year and the
market is till ''stagnant.''

Arlacchi said that both the international community and national
governments need about a billion dollars annually for the next 10 years to
totally eliminate narcotic crops. ''The United Nations, working closely
with the governments of Thailand and Pakistan, have completely eliminated
opium production in both countries. These are two big success stories,'' he
said.

In Pakistan alone, an investment of less than 200 million dollars over a 10
year period has helped to reduce to almost zero the production of poppy in
that country.

Pakistan, a major opium producer, had an output of about 800 tons annually.
''Now, it has been reduced to less than 20 tons, almost negligible,'' he said.

Arlacchi attributed the success to crop substitution. ''We provided an
alternative source of income to the hundreds and thousands of peasants.''