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MONTHLY SITUATION REPORT October 2002

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MONTHLY SITUATION REPORT October 2002 Country Office for Afghanistan P.O.Box 5, Shah Mahmood Ghazi Watt Kabul, Afghanistan Tel: +93 20 2101994,+93 70 279691 Fax:+87 376 1660 769; Email: [email protected] MONTHLY SITUATION REPORT October 2002 General Developments in Drugs and Crime The 2002/2003 planting season has started in the eastern zone of Afghanistan. Some farmers have already cultivated poppy on their land. According to the UNODC Liaison Office in Kandahar, the coalition forces seized around 80 kg of opium after searching houses in the Khakrez district of Kandahar province. Governmental Developments New Drug Control Structure of the Afghan Transitional Authority (ATA): On 7 October, the National Security Adviser, Dr. Zalmai Rassoul, was named by President Karzai to lead the government’s efforts on drug control and to give direction to the national narcotics policy. The Decree by the president stated that the National Security Adviser of the Afghan Transitional Authority (ATA) will be responsible for all activities related to the prevention of drug cultivation, production, consumption and trafficking. All national and international organizations working in the drug control field were asked to coordinate their activities with the office of the National Security Adviser. A Counter Narcotics Department (CND) was established within the National Security Council (NSC) to coordinate the drug control efforts. Mr. Mirwais Yasini was appointed as the Director of CND. It is envisaged that the NSC will have a coordinating and monitoring role for drug control activities of the government, and specific activities in each sector will be done by relevant ministries. The CND will have the role of the executive office for drug control of the NSC. It is also envisaged that an inter-ministerial committee will be established at the NSC, consisting of relevant ministers and several governors, with overall responsibility to determine the policies and strategies of the government in the area of drug control. Programmatic Update of UNODC Kabul Project AFG/G 24: Capacity Building for Drug Control On 17 October, with the support of UNODC and the UK Government, the ATA held a second drug control coordination meeting in Kabul. The meeting was well attended by representatives of UN agencies and NGOs, heads of diplomatic missions, ministers and other high-level officials of ATA. Ambassador Brahimi, the SRSG for Afghanistan, delivered an opening statement. The meeting was co-chaired by the Acting Foreign Minister, Minister of Rural Rehabilitation and Development, Minister of Justice, Minister of Interior, Deputy Minister of Public Health and Director of Counter Narcotics Department (CND) of the National Secuirty Council (NSC). In preparation for that meeting, the relevant ministries with support from NSC, the UK Government, UNAMA and UNODC Kabul had organized working groups to prepare implementation plans and to identify the activities undertaken or planned for each sector. Working groups were established in five thematic areas of drug control and were headed by the following Government institutions of the ATA: · Alternative Livelihoods: Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development (MRRD). · Judicial Reform: Ministry of Justice (MoJ) · Demand Reduction: Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) · Law Enforcement: Ministry of Interior (MoI) · Institution Building: Counter Narcotics Department (CND) of the National Security Council (NSC). The drug awareness campaign begun in September has, thus far, covered 15 of 22 districts in Nangarhar province. The objective of the campaign is to inform the communities about the Government’s ban on opium poppy cultivation and the fact that there will not be any compensation for opium poppy eradication next year. Project AFG/G 38: Strengthening Counter Narcotics Law Enforcement Capacity: The Terms of Reference of the National Project Coordinator were drafted and the position announced. In addition, UNODC Kabul and Tashkent assisted in having two Afghan generals attend the INCB sponsored meeting in Tashkent, 17-19 October. UNODC-Kabul has been asked to prepare a project idea for the establishment of an interdiction unit within the Counter Narcotics Police Department of the Ministry of Interior. The project idea was developed and it was included in the Transitional Assistance Programme for Afghanistan (TAPA) for funding. It was also shared with UNODC Headquarters in Vienna. Project AFG/F55: Drug Demand Reduction Information, Advice and Training Service for Afghan Women in Refugee Camps in Baluchistan and North West Frontier Province (NWFP), Pakistan: The two female staff teams continued to develop a drug demand reduction information, advice and training service for Afghan women in refugee camps in the North West Frontier Province and Baluchistan in Pakistan. Preparations were made for a 2-day training and evaluation workshop for two the eight female fieldworkers, to be held in Quetta. Drug abuse prevention information material as developed for Afghan refugee women and will be printed in both Dari and Pashto. The project facilitated the field visit of the Representative of UNODC Kabul and the Director of CND to drug treatment facilities in the Peshawar area. Project AFG/G26: Drug Demand Reduction Information, Advice and Training Service for Afghanistan: The project acted as Secretariat to the Ministry of Public Health in establishing a Working Group on Demand Reduction that prepared the draft DR action plan and Report of the Working Group for the second National Drug Coordination Meeting held on 17 October. Demand reduction action plans and business plans were also prepared for UNODC’s submissions to TAPA and the Ministry of Finance. A draft project document for Capacity Building for Demand Reduction in Afghanistan was prepared and submitted to HQ. Meetings were held with the Drug Dependency Treatment Centre in the Mental Health Hospital and Nejat, a community-based drug treatment NGO, as the first step in developing a referral system for drug addicts in Kabul. Candidates for the NPO post were interviewed and Mr. Mohammad Naim was selected; he took up his post on 1 November. AFG/F98: Monitoring of Opium Production in Afghanistan: The data entry of the Helmand GPS Survey was completed. Six hundred copies of the Annual Opium Poppy Survey were printed and will be distributed to all government agencies, diplomatic missions, international organizations, NGOs and news agencies. Other Matters Mission reports: The representative fielded a mission to Vienna to participate in the UNODC major donors meeting. He was accompanied by the Director of CND who used that opportunity to meet with ambassadors to the drug control programme. On 29 October, upon their return from Vienna, the Representative of UNODC Kabul and the Director of CND fielded a mission to Peshawar and Jalalabad. In Peshawar, they visited the UNODC drug demand reduction project for Afghan Refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan. In Jalalabad, they discussed drug control issues with the provincial authorities, initiated a close working relationship between UNODC Liaison Office in Jalalabad and the new authorities of Nangarhar DCCU, and visited the drug awareness campaign project funded by UNODC in Nangarhar province. In a meeting between the Representative of UNODC Kabul, the Director of CND and the head of NDCCU, it was agreed that: · UNODC would share its Liaison Office in Jalalabad with NDCCU. · The Terms of Reference of DCCUs will be reviewed by the CND in Kabul and a meeting of heads of DCCUs (Nangarhar and Kandahar established by UNODC in 1997 and Helmand and Heart by the Taliban in 2000) would be convened in Kabul to agree on the new Terms of Reference, the number of people needed for each office and qualifications of the DCCU staff. Contribution to the Transitional Assistance Programme for Afghanistan (TAPA): According to a format provided by UNAMA, the ongoing and pipeline projects of UNODC Kabul were included in TAPA for funding in 2003. Also, as requested by the government, business plans for UNODC projects for 2002 and 2003 were prepared and submitted to the government through UNAMA. The plans will be reviewed in a joint meeting of the Representative of UNODC, Deputy SRSG (Pillar II), the National Security Adviser, the Director of CND and three Government Ministers (Finance, Planning and Reconstruction). Strengthening of UNODC Kabul: The Executive Director of UNODC has appointed Dr. Adam C. Bouloukos as Programme Management Officer of UNODC Kabul. Dr. Bouloukos will take up his post on 5 November and will act as Deputy to the Representative .
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