United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) vowed to help Afghan farmers to fend for their families without sowing poppy, its new executive director, Yuri Fedotov, said.
Fedotov said, while visiting the Afghan capital of Kabul he met with the country's President Hamid Karzai. The sides discussed problems and threats of drug production and drug trafficking, which Afghanistan is facing.
"We must ensure that Afghan farmers will have access to markets and conditions for normal agricultural production," Fedotov said. "We have to provide Afghan farmers a chance and opportunity to fend for their families, without planting poppy," he continued adding that it is necessary to solve a problem of consumption of drugs also.
Afghan drug production and trafficking remain one of the main priorities for the international society and for the UNODC, Fedotov said.
Fedotov said earlier in November the UNODC would put into practice in 2011 a new strategy to fight drugs in Afghanistan.
Afghan drug production increased dramatically after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled the Taliban in 2001, and Russia has been one of the most affected countries, with heroin consumption rising steeply. An estimated 90% of heroin consumed in Russia is trafficked from Afghanistan via Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Russia has long been critical of NATO efforts to stem the flow of drugs from the war-ravaged Central Asian state.
KABUL, November 27 (RIA Novosti)
