52nd UNGA
Third Committee
Item 104:
International Drug Control
Statement by Mr. Khenthong NUANTHASING
for the Delegation of the Lao PDR
New York, 23 October 1997
Mr. Chairman,
Allow me at the outset to congratulate you on your election as Chairman of the
Third Committee for the 52nd Session of the General Assembly. My congratulations
also go to the other Members of the Bureau. We have every confidence that under
your leadership the work of our Committee will be successfully concluded.
Mr. Chairman,
The issue of international drug control which is under consideration of the
Third Committee today has been the problems of serious concern of the
International Community for many years. Indeed, the drug problems have posed
serious threats to the society and development of many countries and as the
Secretary General of the United Nations stated in his message for International
Day against drug abuse and illicit trafficking, there is no part of the world
that is not touched by the scourge of drug abuse and drug abuse is a growing
problem almost everywhere.
In the light of the above, my delegation believes that one country alone,
regardless of its size or power can not cope with this evil and only through
concerted and united actions of the International Community we can together deal
with such problem of the world. In recent years, the United Nations,
particularly the United Nations International Drug Control Programmes ( UNDCP)
has intensified its efforts to increase international cooperation on drug
control activities namely in the areas of reduction of supply and demand, law
enforcement, strengthening of legislation, activity against money laundering and
so on .
At the same time, the U.N. General Assembly has adopted a series of important
Resolutions and Documents on narcotics drugs, among them a Global Programme of
Action, which the Lao PDR welcomes and implements in earnest. In this
connection, the Lao PDR supports the convening of the Special Session of the
General Assembly on International Drug Control to be held in June next year. It
is our hope that the outcome of that Session would provide the world community
with a new strategy and commitment for fighting against the illicit production,
sale, demand, traffic and distribution of narcotic drugs.
Mr. Chairman,
Being aware of the serious consequences of the drug problem, the Lao Government
attaches great importance to the issue. Therefore, it has pursue a policy of
combating narcotic drug in all its forms and manifestations, setting a target to
reduce opium poppy cultivation from 130 tones (1992) to less than 70 tones by
the year 2000.
For this purpose, a necessary mechanism was created, the Lao National Commission
for Drug Control and Supervision was strengthened, Offices of Law Enforcement
and Customs were expanded to many different provinces of the country and the Lao
Legislation was strengthened by bringing an Amendment to Article 135 of the
Criminal Code on drug trafficking or possession. One of the new measures now
clearly states that any persons who habitually produce, traffic, distribute or
have heroin in their possession, import, export, transport or carry heroin,
alone or in an organized group, in transit through the Lao PDR in an amount of
more than 100g will be jailed and deprived of freedom for 10 years to life
imprisonment with a fine of 5 million kip to 100 million kip.
Furthermore, a Drug Control Master Plan was adopted by the Lao Government for
the period 1994-2000 which has 6 main objectives namely:
- The gradual elimination of opium poppy cultivation,
- The elimination of commercial cannabis cultivation,
- The prevention of drug abuse,
- The elimination of trafficking, refining and other drug related crimes,
- The control of licit and illicit activities and
- The development of international cooperation.
To reach these objectives, the Master Plan listed 16 projects to be implemented
in all sectors of drug control. Due to financial constraints, most of these
projects can not be implemented without some assistance from external donors.
Today, 12 of 16 projects have been started with full or partial funding, 4 of
them are still in need of donors.
Although we have faced many difficulties in human and financial resources, a
significant progress has been made in the counternarcotics. In 1996 alone, 161
persons, among them 30 foreigners, had been detained and prosecuted for
trafficking or possession of heroin, opium, cannabis or amphetamine-type
stimulants. As a result, 1635kg of heroin, 869kg of opium,1097kg of cannabis and
22036 pills of amphetamine-type stimulants were seized. This represents a modest
contribution of our country to the world efforts in law enforcement. New in this
field and with the support of friendly countries and International
organizations, our officers in Counternarcotics Units, are all committed to
continue to work hard and fulfill their task.
Mr. Chairman,
As a producing and transiting country, the Lao PDR renders full cooperation to
UNDCP, UNDP and other countries in the region as well as outside of the region.
However, despite a lot of progress made our formidable task still remains,
particularly the eradication of opium poppy cultivation. To that end, we will
continue to do our best to strengthen our drug control measures and take part in
subregional, regional and international cooperation and sincerely hope that the
International Community will continue to provide to my us with necessary support
in this endeavour.