Pubdate: Fri, 18 Feb 2000 Source: Scotsman (UK) Copyright: The Scotsman Publications Ltd 2000 Contact: http://www.scotsman.com/ Forum: http://www.scotsman.com/ Author: James Kirkup TEHRAN FIGHTS LOSING BATTLE AGAINST DRUG BARONS ON the wall outside Iran's drug control agency are portraits of anti-narcotics police officers. Thirty-five in all, each picture bears the red rose of a martyr. All died in the line of duty, killed by drug traffickers. That death toll would be high enough if it was incurred in the course of a year. Those 35 lives were not lost over 12 months however, but in a single day. The men all died during a shoot-out with a drug smuggling gang in south-west Iran last month and their fate was far from unusual - last year 193 Iranian police officers and soldiers were killed in clashes with traffickers. Buy heroin on a British street and there is an eight in ten chance that the it was originally cultivated as opium poppies in Afghanistan - and if so it is certain that on its way to Europe it passed through Iran. The Islamic republic is a transit country for the drug trade. Esmaeil Afshari, a director of the drug control agency, said the sheer volume of narcotics passing through the country's borders is far too great to be stopped. Iran's limited successes only illustrate the scale of the problem. Last year Iranian forces seized 253 tonnes of drugs, but even that haul pales in comparison to the 4,600 tonnes of opiate drugs the United Nations estimates that Afghanistan produces each year. And that figure according to Iranian intelligence estimates, may only be 80 per cent of the real total. While most of the traffic passes on to distant markets, more than enough stays in Iran. The Iranian government estimates that there are more than two million drug users among Iran's 65 million people of whom 1.2 million are addicted. Most are opium users and the interior ministry estimates they are responsible for up to half of all crime in Iran. Perhaps surprisingly for a country with a tradition of strict abstention and a harsh penal code, Iran's approach to addiction is relatively sympathetic with help provided through 55 state-funded rehabilitation clinics. However, foreign journalists are not encouraged to visit the clinics. "It might not be understood. It might not be safe," says one police official. Iran's struggle to keep out the substances that fuel the addicts' habits has left its border with Afghanistan resembling a war zone. Deep trenches have been dug, barbed wire fences erected and heavily fortified watch towers built. In all 30,000 Iranian troops are deployed along the border with Afghanistan and Pakistan. But the frontier is 1,200 miles long and even when Iranian forces do intercept drug smugglers in the vast rocky plains and mountainous valleys they often find themselves outnumbered and out-gunned. Mr Afshari says the drug gangs are able to buy even the most powerful weapons in the arms bazaars of Central Asia. "They travel in caravans of dozens of cars, and the security cars have heavy weapons. They have machine-guns, RPG-7 rocket launchers, and they have even used Stinger missiles to shoot down our helicopters." Nor do those who live in the border provinces escape the traffickers, who force residents to transport drugs or face execution. Kidnapping is commonplace, and a group of Portuguese scientists abducted in Kerman province last month were simply the highest profile victims. Released unharmed, they had been seized by a drug baron demanding his son be released from an Iranian jail. Mohammed Nasser Tavasolizadah, an MP for one of the frontier provinces, says people there live "in a state of constant terror" because of the drug gangs. "If the people don't obey the smugglers they or their families will be killed." To defend residents, he has called on the Iranian government to allow the formation of local armed militia groups. However, Mr Afshari said responsibility for blocking the flow of drugs also rests with the international community and particularly those states where the drugs end their journey. For the most part that means Europe. Britain has responded to that call, donating body armour and night vision goggles to Iran's drug police as well as giving UKP1.2 million in direct aid. But that says Mr Afshari, is a drop in the ocean. "Iran spends $70 million every year on fighting drugs. We get less than $4 million every year from the United Nations." - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D