Email
Password
(Forgot Password?)
The 11 countries of the South-East Asian region with a 1.5 billion population have agreed to come together in fighting tobacco which is viewed as a major health threat, bigger than even some communicable diseases.
The countries " six of the Saarc and five of the Asean groups " reached a consensus at the end of the two-day meeting of their health ministers here on Tuesday to launch a concerted attack on tobacco.
Three of them " Bangladesh, Thailand and Korea " have already signed the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Others have agreed with the proposal and decided to frame laws to control tobacco.
India approved of it even before FCTC passed legislations to curb tobacco consumption, health minister Sushma Swaraj said, while briefing reporters on the deliberations of the meeting.
The 11 countries, which have a 40 per cent share of the worlds major diseases, have decided to ban ads glorifying cigarette smoking.
Jump to full article »
EAST Timor is in danger of being infiltrated by crime gangs intent on using it as a stepping stone to Australia.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said his force was working with the East Timorese Government to lessen the risks. . .
"Our experiences, our intelligence, about free-trade zones in other parts of the world is that they can become money-laundering centres," he said.
"Particularly money laundering tied up with tobacco.
"The sale of tobacco in free trade zones is recognised as a way of laundering money from drug production.
"So you come in with the cash and buy the tobacco and you then on-sell the tobacco and you have basically laundered your money. That's been our experience with the South American drug cartels, which are tied up with cocaine."
East Timor lawyer's association president Benevides Correia Barros said lawyers would not work until East Timorese border officials and police recognised that the bad old days, when they did as they pleased, were over.
The problem began in February when Customs Service Control -- the border police -- seized cigarettes worth $US1200 ($2250) belonging to a small-time trader, Marsal dos Santos.
It was claimed he had not paid import duty but his lawyers argued Mr dos Santos, who was nabbed well inside the East Timor border near Balibo, had bought the cigarettes inside the country and they were legal.
At a preliminary mediation hearing, lawyers asked for the cigarettes -- believed to be the clove-scented killer, Gudang Garam -- back. This was refused so the matter went to court. Customs was ordered to send a representative on three occasions, but each time no one showed.
Finally, a judgment was made in favour of the trader and the cigarettes ordered to be returned. But customs still refused to give them back.
THAILAND will send more than 100,000 packets of cigarettes to be distributed to Thai soldiers and people in East Timor to strengthen bilateral ties.
However, anti-smoking activists urged the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly (TTM), which gave more than 200 containers of cigarettes to Army chief Gen Surayud Chulanont, to reconsider the plan.
''Cigarettes are not good for the soldiers' health. If the TTM really cares about the soldiers, it should send food or fruits instead,'' said Dr Hatai Chitanond, chairman of the Thai Health Promotion Institute.
He expressed concern that the cigarettes would make some soldiers smoke more and those who are non-smokers to take up the habit because of the tense situation in East Timor.
Investors are buying blue-chip stocks on the back of growing pressure at home and abroad on President B.J. Habibie over his handling of the East Timor crisis and the domestic political situation.
The pressure on Habibie is seen badly hurting his hopes for reelection, increasing the possibility of smoother transition to a new government, traders said.