TAJIK LEADER SAYS AFGHAN DRUGS ARE A MAJOR THREAT

DUSHANBE, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Tajik President Imomali Rakhmonov said on
Friday increasing quantities of drugs flooding into the ex- Soviet republic
from neighbouring Afghanistan represented a social and security threat.

"A danger has arisen for the young Tajik government and if it is not
eliminated it will cancel out the progress we have made," he said at the
opening of an international drugs conference in the capital, Dushanbe.

The impoverished Central Asian state of 5.7 million people, which is fast
becoming a major transit route mainly for opium and heroin from the south,
was increasingly turning into a consumer.

"The number of people taking drugs in Tajikistan is rising," Rakhmonov
said. "This trend has taken on such a character that if serious measures
are not taken today, then tomorrow it will be too late."

Tajikistan faces a growing drugs problem as people look to escape the harsh
economic conditions that five years of civil war have brought on the
mountainous republic.

The war, which ended in mid-1997, claimed tens of thousands of lives and
left the economy in ruins.

Drug trafficking has also become a major cause of crime, with lucrative
returns encouraging often armed Afghans and Tajiks to cross borders
illegally and take incredible risks.

Tajikistan's southern flank is patrolled by Tajik and Russian troops to
secure the border against intrusions by troops from Afghanistan and to stem
the flow of drugs.

Rakhmonov said security forces throughout the republic had not done enough
to fight the problem.

He said around one tonne of drugs crossed into Tajikistan from Afghanistan
every day and that he had information which showed that up to 2,000 tonnes
were stored close to the border for transportation.

"At the same time, there are also cases when some members of this force
(Russian border guards) participate directly in the trafficking of drugs
from Afghanistan to Tajikistan," said Rakhmonov.

International aid was needed to help in the struggle against drugs, the
president said, adding that it was a problem not only for Tajikistan but
for countries where the drugs reached the street.

Bogdan Lisovich, head of the United Nation's Central Asian drug control
programme, said narcotics production was on the rise in Afghanistan.

He said 2,800 tonnes of raw opium were produced there last year, from which
280 tonnes of pure heroin could be refined with a street value of $81
billion in Europe.

Around 70 tonnes of heroin were transported across the five Central Asian
states last year, the majority of which crossed Tajikistan, Lisovich added.

Only a small proportion of drugs trafficked into Tajikistan is discovered.