Iran antidrug war on right trackU.N. official

By Diana Abdallah

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (Reuter) Iran maintains a high success rate in
seizing opium smuggled from Afghanistan and Pakistan on camels and in
fourwheel drive vehicles on its way to world markets, a United Nations
official said Tuesday.

Giovanni Quaglia, director of the U.N. International Drug Control Program
(UNDCP) for southwest Asia, said Iran last year seized 300 tons of opium out
of the 2,300 produced in neighboring Afghanistan, one of the world's biggest
suppliers.

``Confiscating 12 to 13 percent of what is produced is the highest percentage
in the world in a single country,'' he told Reuters by telephone from Tehran.

``Had we had similar success in other countries we would have good progress
in the drug control field,'' he said. ``In Europe only five percent of what
is smuggled is confiscated.''

Quaglia, who is based in Islamabad, is visiting Iran which Tuesday marks
antinarcotics day. Authorities will later in the day burn 45 tons of illegal
drugs near Tehran in a public ceremony.

Iran is a key transit route for drugs, mostly opium from which heroin is
made, being smuggled to Europe through Turkey from Afghanistan and Pakistan
the socalled ``Golden Crescent.''

Diplomats say the Islamic republic, which imposes the death penalty for drug
possession, appears to be intensifying its crackdown, but that its rugged
borders and the highly professional smuggling operation made the task
daunting.

Iranian officials say Iran's antinarcotics policy has not halted shipments
of illegal drugs through its territory because of a lack of cooperation by
regional states.

Monday, Iran's Interior Minister Mohammad Besharati said in Tehran that
Iran's efforts alone were not enough. ``Taking into account the fact that
Iran is neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan, the investment made by Iran is
insufficient. The antidrug campaign in Iran requires international
assistance.''

The amount of drugs that made it through Iran to international markets was
not clear, the diplomats said.

But Quaglia said that of the opium produced in Afghanistan, about 1,000 tons
were consumed in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, 300 confiscated and the
remaining 1,000 tons converted into morphine and heroin for the world market,
mostly Europe.

Iranian officials estimate there are one million drug addicts in the country.