AT U.N. TALKS, OTHER VOICES SOUND OFF ABOUT DRUGS

UNITED NATIONS, New York --- Palau's president describes his nation as
an island paradise, with the world's best scuba diving in pristine
South Pacific waters, abundant seafood, safe streets and a growing
economy.

"One might think that our paradise is free of drug problems,"
President Kuniwo Nakamura said in a statement to the General
Assembly's special session on illegal drugs. But an imported form of
methamphetamine --- nicknamed "ice"---has begun to entice users as
young as 13 and 14 years old.

"Although our law enforcement is well trained and respected, we lack
the technology to effectively combat this terrible problem," said the
president' statement, which was delivered today to a largely empty
chamber by Hersey Kyota, Palau's representative.

Oratory from big nations like the United States dominated the opening
of the special session Monday. But the full scope of the drug problem
has unfolded in sometimes poignant testimony by smaller and poorer
countries like Palau the United Nations' newest member.

They have lined up to recount how drug trafficking and consumption
have corrupted their struggling economies and societies and why they
are hard pressed to stop it.

Former Soviet republics have complained of rising drug use in the wake
of the heady arrival of democracy. Caribbean nations have recounted
the dangers of being overrun by drug smugglers.,

Many countries have asked for financial and technical assistance and a
greater effort by developed countries to reduce the demand for drugs.

Prime Minister Kubanychbek Jumaliyev of Kyrgyzstan said Tuesday that
"while two or three years ago people in Kyrgyzstan had only a
theoretical idea of what heroin is, nowadays it has become one of the
main drugs on the illegal market."

Since Armenia found itself on the drug-trafficking route from Central
Asia Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian said, local drug seizures had
risen by 30 times since 1993 and narcotics-related crime in Armenia was
up by 150 percent. New found democratic freedoms left many Armenians
vulnerable to drugs, Mr. Oskanian said, "not just of personal use but
of quick and easy financial gain."

Prime Minister Basdeo Panday of Trinidad and Tobago said that his
island nation's proximity to South America made it vulnerable to
cocaine trafficking. The result, he said, was a rise in serious crime,
the recruitment of unemployed people as drug traffickers and users,
and a dramatic escalation in addiction.

Prime Minister Guntars Krasts of Latvia said that 80 percent of
Latvian high school students surveyed had tried drugs at least once,
and that drug abuse had claimed the lives of an increasing number of
young Latvians. Deputy Prime Minister Josef Kalman of Slovakia agreed,
"We have noticed an increasing number of consumers coming; from lower
and lower age levels."

Checked-by: (trikydik)