Homeland Security

DATE=5/18/03

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=O-S-C-E/SMUGGLING (L-O)

NUMBER=2-303349

BYLINE=MELANIE SULLY

DATELINE=VIENNA

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe is to begin working with Afghanistan in the fight against drug smuggling. Melanie Sully reports from Vienna, the new partners start a three-day meeting Tuesday in Prague.

TEXT: As the world's largest regional security organization, the O-S-C-E considers illegal trafficking in drugs, human beings, and weapons a prime cause of human misery, the devastation of national economies, and the rise of criminal networks. It says smuggling has a long-term impact on security and political stability.

The O-S-C-E also includes Central Asian states and the Caucasus, which are particularly affected by drug trafficking as countries of origin or transit.

Last month, Afghanistan, the world's main producer of heroin poppies, became a new partner in co-operation with the O-S-C-E. Afghanistan shares a long border with three O-S-C-E countries, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.

O-S-C-E Deputy Co-ordinator of Economic and Environmental Activities Marc Baltes says Afghanistan is working with the O-S-C-E to tackle the flow of drugs.

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Most of the drugs, in the O-S-C-E world at least, that are stemming from poppies come from Afghanistan through Central Asia, through the Caucasus to Europe and the United States. So, that is something where we have to address alternative ways of life for the producers, looking to how we can strengthen the governmental structures, in order to address this in the production countries and then of course you go to very deep problems in societies in the west, where we have the use of drugs.

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Mr. Baltes says the O-S-C-E can work through its field missions to help build a civil society and tackle the roots of trafficking. (SIGNED)

NEB/MS/DW/RAE/TW