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South Africa: Guinea-Bissau Seeks Help to Counter Scourge of Drug Trafficking
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
7 August 2007
Posted to the web 7 August 2007
John Kaninda
Johannesburg
GUINEA-Bissau Prime Minister Martinho Dafa Cabi has renewed his call for international aid to fight drug trafficking in his country, an activity which he says "has the potential to destroy a state".
Cabi, on a working visit to SA after visiting Dakar at the weekend, was speaking at a media briefing in Pretoria yesterday.
He denied reports saying he had downplayed the issue of drugs during his stop in Senegal. "We have always treated the matter very, very seriously. It is exactly because of this that our government has worked out an emergency programme against drug trafficking."
He said the nonexistence of border controls along the country's shores, political fissures and corruption among police and army officials had allowed Colombian drug cartels to turn the west African country into a transit hub for European-bound cocaine originating from South America.
Cabi said he hoped SA could help Guinea-Bissau address some of its shortcomings in the fight against drug trafficking when the two countries signed a defence co-operation agreement this week.
"We have a problem with our defence and logistics and we need to get experience from SA in this regard," he said.
"This problem is not unique to us -- this is a regional challenge and exists in Cape Verde, The Gambia and Senegal.
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"In order to address this we have scheduled a regional conference this year dedicated to border control issues."
Cabi said that fixing the weakness of west African borders required a joint effort -- at regional and international levels.
"This constitutes a very serious problem for us," he said.
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