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STORY : UNODC / AFGHAN OPIUM REPORT
TRT: 4.12
SOURCE : UNODC / UNAMA / IRIN / UNICEF / UNTV / WORLD BANK / UNDP
RESTRICTIONS : NONE
LANGUAGES : ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE : 19-20 OCTOBER 2009, VIENNA, AUSTRIA / FILE
FILE – UNAMA – APRIL-MAY 2008, BADAKHSHAN, AFGHANISTAN
1. Various shots, farmers in poppy field
FILE - IRIN - SEPTEMBER 2004, AFGHANISTAN
2. Various shots, man with lump of opium
FILE - JUNE 2006 - ROTTERDAM, NETHERLANDS
3. Various shots, heroin users preparing the powder for a fix
FILE – UNICEF – 6-13 FEBRUARY 2009, MALDIVES
4. Close up, a highly drugged addict
5. Various shots, man showing scars on his left arm
UNODC – 20 OCTOBER 2009, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“Europe loses about 10,000 people a year to drug addiction, to Afghan narcotics. NATO forces in Afghanistan during the past six, seven years, since the attack in 2001 have lost a grand total of 1,800 soldiers.”
FILE – UNAMA – APRIL-MAY 2008, BADAKHSHAN, AFGHANISTAN
7. Wide shot, farmer in poppy field
8. Various shots, harvesting poppies
UNODC – 19 OCTOBER 2009, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
9. SOUNDBITE (French) Thibault Le Pichon, Chief of Studies and Threat Analysis Section, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“We calculate in average that they [the Taliban and armed groups] have obtained about 90 to 160 millions dollars per year, so an average of 125 million dollars."
FILE – UNTV – 11 MAY 2006, TAJIKISTAN/ AFGHANISTAN BORDER
10. Wide shot, Tajikistan/Afghanistan border - Pyanj River
11. Med shot, donkeys on the Afghan side
12. Various shots, inflatable boat on the river
UNODC – 20 OCTOBER 2009, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
13. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“There is a large number of insurgent groups, in Turkmenistan in Uzbekistan, generally speaking and so forth, that are benefiting from the trade, they are a part of the problem and they are deriving revenue which could be very significant in the future in terms of threat and instability in central Asia.”
FILE – UNTV – 12, 13 NOVEMBER 2006, ISTAMBUL, TURKEY
14. Wide shot, bridge over Bosphorus
15. Med shot, mosque at sunset
FILE – UNDP – RECENT, CALCUTTA, INDIA
16. Wide shot, train with passengers
17. Wide shot, train tracks with people
18. Med shot, pedestrians
FILE – WORLD BANK – CHINA 2008
19. Wide shot, river
20. Various shots, street scenes
FILE – WORLD BANK – CHINA 2009
21. Med shot, flag
UNODC – 19 OCTOBER 2009, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
22. SOUNDBITE (French) Thibault Le Pichon, Chief of Studies and Threat Analysis Section, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“And so markets such as China, which today represents twelve percent of the world consumption market of opium, gets more of its opiates from Afghanistan. So we think that about one fourth of the Chinese market is supplied by Afghan opiates.”
FILE – UNAMA – APRIL-MAY 2008, BADAKHSHAN, AFGHANISTAN
23. Close up, opium
FILE – UNICEF – 24 NOVEMBER 2008, KABUL, AFGHANISTAN
24. Med shot, drug users coming out of house
25. Med shot, drug users sitting around fire
26 Med shot, three men sleeping on side of road
27. Wide shot, men sleeping on side of road
UNODC – 20 OCTOBER 2009, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
28. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“A gram of heroin can be purchased on the street of Kabul or generally in Afghanistan for two to three dollars for one gram. Once it reaches the destination market namely Europe, Moscow, or Paris, London or Rome, it could be anywhere between 70 to 100 dollars.”
FILE – UNTV – 5 MAY 2006, DUSHANBE, TAJIKISTAN
29. Close up, drugs box opened
30. Med shot, drug bags being opened
31. Close up, heroin bag
32. Wide shot, drugs thrown at incinerator
33. Close up, drugs thrown at incinerator
UNODC – 20 OCTOBER 2009, VIENNA, AUSTRIA
34. SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“We believe that great attention should be paid to enhancing security including police and law enforcement ability in Afghanistan. At the moment Afghanistan seizes only something like two percent of the drugs it produces.”
FILE – UNICEF – 4 JUNE 2006, BAM, IRAN
35. Wide shot, actor playing a drug addict stumbling in street
36. Med shot, actor with policeman and crowd
37. Med shot, audience watching street theater
38. Med shot, scene from play
A new report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) says that opium trafficked from Afghanistan to other countries has created a market worth $65 billion, catering to 15 million addicts, causing up to 100,000 deaths per year, spreading HIV at an unprecedented rate, and funding criminal groups, insurgents and terrorists.
Afghanistan has the world monopoly of opium cultivation, producing 92 percent of the raw material for the world’s deadliest drug – heroin.
The UNODC report “Addiction, Crime and Insurgency: The transnational threat of Afghan opium” shows the devastating consequences that the 900 tons of opium and 375 tons of heroin, trafficked from Afghanistan every year, have on the health and security of countries along the Balkan and Eurasian drug routes, all the way to Europe, Russia, India and China.
In an interview ahead of the launch, the top UN official on drugs and crime, Antonio Maria Costa noted that in terms of human lives, drugs from Afghanistan have taken a far higher toll on NATO countries than the ongoing conflict.
SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“Europe loses about 10,000 people a year to drug addiction, to Afghan narcotics. NATO forces in Afghanistan during the past six, seven years, since the attack in 2001 have lost a grand total of 1,800 soldiers.”
Opium cultivation is also making more money for the Taliban now than in the 1990s when they were in power, says UNODC’s Chief of Studies and Threat Analysis, Thibault Le Pichon.
SOUNDBITE (French) Thibault Le Pichon, Chief of Studies and Threat Analysis Section, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“We calculate in average that they [the Taliban and armed groups] have obtained about 90 to 160 millions dollars per year, so an average of 125 million dollars.”
UNODC warns that a “perfect storm” of drugs and terrorism may be heading towards Central Asia, one of the main smuggling routes towards markets in Europe and Russia.
In addition to criminals, the agency says money made around Afghanistan by the drug trade is flowing to insurgents like the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, the Islamic Party of Turkmenistan, and the East Turkistan Liberation Organization.
SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“There is a large number of insurgent groups, in Turkmenistan in Uzbekistan, generally speaking and so forth, that are benefiting from the trade, they are a part of the problem and they are deriving revenue which could be very significant in the future in terms of threat and instability in central Asia.”
The report says that worldwide, only 20 percent of Afghan opiate shipments are being intercepted. Seizure rates in South Eastern Europe are especially low, at less than two percent.
On its way to market in Europe and Asian countries like India and China, approximately 40 percent of Afghanistan’s heroin (150 tons) is trafficked each year into Pakistan, around 30 percent (105 tons) enters Iran, and while 25 percent (100 tons) flows into Central Asia.
Le Pichon notes that as production has declined dramatically over the last ten years in South Asia’s traditional supply countries like Laos and Myanmar, the flow of Afghan opium to Asian markets have become more substantial.
SOUNDBITE (French) Thibault Le Pichon, Chief of Studies and Threat Analysis Section, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“And so markets such as China, which today represents twelve percent of the world consumption market of opium, gets more of its opiates from Afghanistan. So we think that about one fourth of the Chinese market is supplied by Afghan opiates.”
UNODC is advocating for more resources to tackle the problem at its source – in Afghanistan and its neighbourhood, where it says there is an incongruence between high volumes of heroin use and low volumes of seizures. It argues that as the value of the drugs doubles with every border crossed, the cost of law enforcement grows correspondingly.
SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“A gram of heroin can be purchased on the street of Kabul or generally in Afghanistan for two to three dollars for one gram. Once it reaches the destination market namely Europe, Moscow, or Paris, London or Rome, it could be anywhere between 70 to 100 dollars.”
According to the report, Afghanistan’s neighbour Iran intercepts 20 percent of the opiates crossing its territory, Pakistan 17 percent, and Central Asian states five percent. Yet seizure rates in Afghanistan itself are far lower, and smuggling prospers especially in the volatile south and east.
SOUNDBITE (English) Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director, UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC):
“We believe that great attention should be paid to enhancing security including police and law enforcement ability in Afghanistan. At the moment Afghanistan seizes only something like two percent of the drugs it produces.”
Meanwhile, the report confirms that since 2006, much more opium has been produced in Afghanistan than is consumed in the world at-large. There is now an unaccounted stockpile of 12,000 tons of Afghan opium – enough to satisfy more than two years of world heroin demand.
