UN, EU LAUNCH $7.6 ANTI-DRUG PROJECT IN BALKANS

SOFIA, - The United Nations and the European
Union launched a $7.6 million project on Thursday to combat drug
traffic through Bulgaria, Macedonia and Romania, three countries on
the notorious Balkan route.

"Drug trafficking in Europe is growing. It was realized no country
could defeat it on its own. The only way to stop it is to work
together," Joem Kristensen, U.N. Drug Control Program (UNDCP) senior
program manager, told reporters.

In its first phase the project will include Bulgaria, Macedonia and
Romania, which lie on a drug trafficking route for smuggling heroin
and hashish from southwest Asia, particularly Afghanistan, to Western
Europe, Kristensen said.

Some 80 percent of drugs supplied to Europe originate in Afghanistan
and are mostly smuggled along this route, he said.

Kristensen said the three-year project could later include other
countries in the region, such as Turkey and Yugoslavia.

Kristensen said the war in former Yugoslavia had forced traffickers to
find alternatives to the more direct route through Turkey, Bulgaria
and former Yugoslavia, such as the route via Romania.

"The peace that followed the war in Yugoslavia re-established the old
routes, but previous one still continue to exist, so there are now
more smuggling groups, more routes, and maybe the challenge we are now
facing is bigger," he said.

"The situation has now become more difficult and we have to undertake
new opportunities to fight drug trafficking."

The project will offer police and customs officials in the three
Balkan states advanced training in profiling techniques and provide
them with modern drug detection equipment and drug-sniffing dogs.

The project also provides for setting up sophisticated criminal data
analysis systems to aid police investigations.

Two thirds of the project's budget will come from the European
Commission while the remainder is expected from UNDCP donors.

According to UNDCP data, an average of more than a tonne of heroin and
over 10 tonnes of hashish are seized along the Balkan route each year.

Bulgaria, which lies between Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and
Romania, seized 220 lbs (100 kg) of heroin last year, compared to 688
lbs (312 kg) in 1997, figures collated by the country's Chief Customs
Directorate showed.