India and Pakistan figure in the US drug list

Washington, Sep 19: India and Pakistan figure in the list of 20 countries which the United States has designated as major drug- transit or illicit drug-producing countries.

Deputy Assistant Secretary for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Christy McCampbell, while briefing the press yesterday after the White House, released the findings of the annual US government report on the global drug trade, said, ''to be designated on the majors list does not necessarily mean that the country is supporting drug-trafficking or lacking in counter- narcotics efforts.'' ''The designation is simple, which comes from a combination of geographical, commercial or other economic factors that allow drugs to transit or to be illegally produced,'' Mr McCampbell said.

Each year at this time the President is required under the Foreign Relations Authorisation Act to notify Congress of countries that are either illegal transit countries or considered drug producing countries.

Mr McCampbell said the President had determined that Burma and Venezuela, failed demonstrably during the last 12 months to make substantial efforts to adhere to their obligations.

Venezuela has been given a waiver to possible sanctions, under US law because support for the programs to aid Venezuela's democratic institutions and community development projects is vital to the national interests of the United States, the report said.

For Burma, the President's statement of justification for the world's second largest producer of opium and a major trafficker of meth-type stimulants, notes that the country has not taken decisive action against drug gangs, and its actions against meth-amphetamine are unsatisfactory.

The President in his specific comment has singled out Afghanistan, Bolivia, Canada, Ecuador, Haiti, and North Korea.

UNI