ASEAN’s legislators, experts meet in Cambodia for anti-drug efforts

PHNOM PENH, May 26 (Xinhua) -- Cambodia on Thursday hosted the 8th meeting of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Fact Finding Committee (AIFOCOM) to combat the drug menace.
   The meeting has attended by ASEAN’s parliamentarians, representatives of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and ASEAN senior officials on Drugs Matters.
   Speaking during opening ceremony, Heng Samrin, the President of Cambodian National Assembly, said the meeting was very significant to find strategic ways and effective resolutions to prevent, manage and combat drug menace in the region.
   “Currently, illicit drugs are posing the main common concern over our region,” he said. “Therefore, a joint effort among ASEAN legislators and law practitioners is indispensable to fight the drug menace in order to attain the ASEAN’s vision: a drug-free ASEAN community by 2015.”
   The two-day meeting would discuss and adopt the draft resolution on the Harmonization of Illegal Drug Laws on Capture and Seizure of Assets used in or Possessed from Drug Related Cases; the control of Reactants and Precursors and Demand Reduction Interventions, according the meeting’s programs.
   Also, it would pass the draft resolution on the establishment of ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Working Group to Combat the Drug Menace.
   The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. (Nguon Sovan)