Pubdate: Sun, 11 Jul 1999 Source: Reuters Copyright: 1999 Reuters Limited. Author: Kinda Jayoush PRAISES LEBANON ILLEGAL DRUGS FIGHT BEIRUT - Lebanon has succeeded in curbing cultivation and trafficking of illicit drugs but needs financial aid to support farmers who depended on the trade for decades, a senior U.N. official said on Sunday. "We came up with a positive impression after we visited the Bekaa Valley and met Lebanese leaders. Lebanon has achieved real progress in fighting drugs," Pino Arlacchi, executive director of the U.N. Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention (ODCCP) told Reuters in an interview. "The problem now is how to boost agricultural development in this area so that farmers will not need to go back to growing cannabis and opium," he said. Arlacchi discussed with President Emile Lahoud and Prime Minister Selim al-Hoss ways to help Lebanon in its ongoing fight against drugs. He also toured the Bekaa Valley, notorious for its illicit drug farms during the 1975-1990 civil war. Building irrigation networks in the poor rural area of Bekaa was the main concern of the Lebanese government and the U.N. agencies helping with development programmes. "There is water in the Bekaa but no proper irrigation networks to develop land cultivation and introduce alternative crops. This is where our help should start," said Arlacchi. He said the ODCCP has extended about $4 million in aid to help finance development projects in Lebanon and was seeking more financial support from developed nations to boost U.N. programmes. "Another four million dollars aid would be extended by the ODCCP in the near future, in about one or two years, for the same purpose," he said. "We are seeking the support of many countries, especially the immediate markets for illicit drugs such as the European Union," he added. Estimates for the total amounts needed for development projects were not yet available at this stage, he said. "We will carry out our own study on the situation and the finances needed for the projects in the near future," Arlacchi said. A U.N. report said certain drugs may have re-emerged in the Bekaa but in insignificant amounts, while the illicit cultivation was regularly eradicated by law enforcement agencies. Cultivation of illegal drugs in Bekaa reached its peak in the late 1980s, with cannabis and opium poppy plantations yielding around 1,000 tonnes of cannabis resin and 30 to 50 tonnes of heroin, the report said. Between 1991 and 1993 Lebanon and Syria, the main power broker there, cracked down on illicit cultivation in Bekaa. Seizures of cannabis resin dropped to 4.9 tonnes in 1996 from about 40 tonnes in 1994, the U.N. report said. Heroin seizures fell to five kg per year from 50 kg in 1993. Cocaine seizures in Lebanon, a transit country for the drug, dropped to 11.9 kg in 1998 compared to 16.7 kg in 1996. The ODCCP has already allocated $14 million in technical aid to fight illicit drugs in the Middle East. "We need the support of governments in this region. They should provide their own financial share to future development projects for the sake of the well-being of this region and the world," Arlacchi said. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek Rea