by TONY BEST

BARBADOS has appealed to the United Nations (UN) to do more to help the Caribbean stem the flow of drugs through the region.

And the call in the UN General Assembly has come at a time when Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, using their own finances, are gearing to launch an aerial anti-drug effort using their own aircraft to crack down on traffickers using high-speed boat.

Dame Billie Miller, Barbados' Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, complained yesterday to the world body that it unilaterally decided to shut down a UN regional office in Barbados sometime ago, ignoring the valuable assistance it was providing to almost 30 states and territories at a time when they needed help.

"It is our sincere hope that this unfortunate decision will be reversed as a matter of urgency and that the UN will once again engage in the Caribbean region through the reopening of the regional office in Barbados," said the foreign minister.

In an address during the general foreign policy debate of the General Assembly, Dame Billie said the Caribbean was being victimised by major drug traffickers who were taking advantage of the region's geographic location to ferry drugs, guns and ammunition, yet the UN had seen it fit to close a regional anti-drug office without consultation.

"Barbados and the countries of Caricom are neither major suppliers nor demand markets for illicit drugs," she said.

"Yet, because of our geographical position and external factors largely beyond our control, we find ourselves affected by the illicit trafficking in drugs, small arms and light weapons, and their constant companion, transnational organised crime. As small countries with limited resources and severe vulnerabilities, we depend on international cooperation to counter these threats," she added.

Dame Billie explained that the presence of the regional UN Office on Drugs and Crime in Barbados, which served a total of 29 states and territories, provided significant technical assistance and was crucial to the region.

That was why the countries were "deeply concerned and not at all convinced" that the decision taken unilaterally in Vienna to close the
UN office in Barbados "translates into making our region safer from these very real threats" she said.

A study entitled Drugs, Crime And Development In Central America And The Caribbean, and published earlier this year by the World Bank and the UN Office for Drug Control clearly demonstrated the "need for enhanced international effort in the region", said Dame Billie.