ANTI-NARCOTICS SQUADS TO BE CONSTITUTED

KABUL (APP): Afghan police are creating their first anti-narcotics units
with the help of the United Nations amid concern that the country could
again become a major producer of opium.Afghanistan's interim government
Thursday said it would take "firm measures very quickly" to prevent the
harvest of poppy in the wake of the Taliban regime's fall late last year.

The police's anti-drug unit will be a first in Afghanistan, said Bernard
Frahi, the representative here of the UN Drug Control Program (UNDCP).

"This unit will have national jurisdiction and in time will work in the
provinces.

We are helping the Afghan police set up this unit based on the model of
existing specialized departments, such as the US Drug Enforcement Agency,"
Frahi said.

The members of the squad must be "incorruptible" and attack the drug
networks, stocks and labratories, he said.

The first phase in setting up the unit will cost an estimated 800,000
dollars, Frahi said.

Afghan authorities and the UNDCP are working to train, equip and establish
a legal framework for the unit, said Frahi, who added he has been in close
contact with Afghan Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni.

Qanooni is a member of the Northern Alliance, which while opposing the
Taliban, tolerated the harvest of poppy in territory it controlled.

But the interim government led by Hamid Karzai, which has been in power for
only two months, has said the fight against poppy harvesting and the
lucrative trafficking of opium and heroin will be a top priority.

The anti-drug effort is being strongly pushed by Western countries, whose
populations are a major market for Afghanistan's heroin and opium.