unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/16/89)
UN DELEGATES APPLAUD EFFORTS OF COLOMBIA IN "WAR" AGAINST DRUG Posting Date: 09/14/89 Source: UNITEX Network, Hoboken, NJ, USA TRAFFICKERS Colombia's battle against drug traffickers has drawn expressions of support and admiration at a United Nations meeting in Vienna of the leaders of national agencies responsible for drug law enforcement. The meeting, the second of its kind organized by the United Nations Division of Narcotic Drugs and being attended by senior drug law enforcement officers from about a hundred countries, observed a moment of silence for all those who had lost their lives in the fight against drugs. Margaret Anstee, Director-General of the United Nations Office in Vienna, said, that, as 50 years ago, the world was again at war. With recent events in Colombia, the fight against drugs had taken on such dimensions. The Government of that country had been faced with a stark choice: to declare war on the traffickers or, in effect, to surrender. In an act of immense courage, it had chosen to fight and in so doing had "earned a place in the history of what has become, for all of us, a world war against drugs". She reviewed ongoing international efforts against the drug problem and called for early implementation of the 1989 United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. There must be co-ordination of efforts, she said, to curtail the consumption of drugs, to help producer- countries stem the "flood of drugs" towards the largest markets, and to help those mechanisms set up for regional and international co-operation to function effectively. Ms. Anstee noted a suggestion in some quarters for a multilateral strike force, under the aegis of the United Nations, to combat illicit trafficking. Such a proposal, she said, raised many delicate and difficult issues, but it was certain that more could be done to strengthen the role of the United Nations and international co-operation in the field of law enforcement and interdiction. Francisco Ramos-Galino, Director of the United Nations Division of Narcotic Drugs, called for more co-operation to help implement the new United Nations Convention, and to allocate the necessary financial resources. The Convention would help alleviate the destabilizing effects of the "drug mafia", he said, in that it would secure assets derived from illicit trafficking and would lead to the arrest of traffickers with extradition to those countries were traffickers were wanted. Law-enforcement officers from a number of countries joined in praising the efforts of the Government of Colombia. Peter Edwards of Britain said recent events in that country, and the 'crack' epidemic which had devastated so many cities in the United States, showed the gravity of the situation. Javier Coello Trejo, Deputy Attorney-General of Mexico, said there must be an historic "turn-about" in the fight against drugs. The safeguarding of the welfare of mankind required extensive international efforts. * Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501) --- Patt Haring | UNITEX : United Nations patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange -=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-