TAJIKISTAN INL DUSHANBE 2007 SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 DUSHANBE 001432 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR INL/AAE (CARROLL AND BUHLER) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR ASEC PREL KCOR KCRM TI SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN INL DUSHANBE 2007 SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT ¶1. In the absence of INL regular quarterly reports, the Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section in Dushanbe herein reports on activities for the period of January - September 2007: -------------- Narcotics and Law Enforcement Activities -------------- January 2007 ¶2. Completed Grant Agreement with INIS Women's Legal Center located in Khujand city; grant provides funding to run the facility and provides salaries to defense advocates providing free services to victims of trafficking, domestic violence and similar crimes against vulnerable populations. ¶3. Border Guards assistance: completed purchase and handover of 10,000 winterized uniforms for border guards. In subsequent inspection of the Border Guard warehouse with Chairman of the State Committee for National Security, most if not all the uniforms had not been distributed. Although many uniforms have since been distributed on the Afghan-Tajik border, as of September 2007, there are still many outposts where border guards and officers are without winter gear. The Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section (and the rest of the Embassy's Border and Law Enforcement Working Group (BLEWG) team) will endeavor to assist the Border Guards in distributing all uniforms and other winter supplies before the end of the year. March 2007 ¶4. Completed renovation of both wings of the Border Guard Regional Training Center at Khorog; INL/IOM Project. ¶5. Conducted two-week Basic Driver Protective Skills Training Course for Representatives of Tajik Law Enforcement agencies (Ministry of Interior, Drug Control Agency, State Committee for National Security). ¶6. The Resident Legal Adviser (RLA) on board and established. April 2007 ¶7. INL Officer attended INL Global Narcotics Affairs Officers (NAS) Conference in Washington. May 2007 ¶8. Funded Tajik Drug Control Agency head General Nazarov's participation in the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) International Drug Enforcement Conference (IDEC) in Madrid, Spain. June 2007 ¶9. INL/United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Joint project, completed a full reconstruction of border posts Bog and Bakhorak. Furniture and limited equipment including Russian UAZ and GAZ Hunter trucks delivered and in place; Ambassador and Border Guard Deputy Faizulloev attended ribbon-cutting ceremony. ¶10. Funded Interior Ministry Counternarcotics Unit Chief General Godoyev for DEA's International Narcotics Executive Management Seminar (INEMS) in Tampa, Florida. ¶11. Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section Staff attended Regional INL Workshop in Istanbul. ¶12. Embassy Dushanbe (coordinated by Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section) hosted the monthly Border Assistance International Group (BIG) multi-donor meeting. July 2007 ¶13. Joint INL/ICITAP project. Completed INL/Senior Law Enforcement Advisor project (SLEA) to reconstruct the forensic laboratory for the Ministry of Interior. New furniture procured and installed. With direct and full support from the U.S. Department of Justice International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) forensic expert, laboratory equipment identified purchased, delivered and installed. DUSHANBE 00001432 002 OF 004 ¶14. Completed Ministry of Interior Analytical Center; conducted building renovation, purchased and installed necessary equipment and ORACLE based software (TAIS ONTOS level seven). Now the Analytical Center of the Ministry of Interior has potential to exchange information with other Tajik law enforcement agencies, in particular the Drug Control Agency, whose Analytical Center was also provided with INL assistance and also uses ORACLE-based software. ¶15. Completed renovation of the 3rd floor of Ministry of Interior Police Academy, with computer training lab and language lab and completed classroom furniture and server systems for both centers. August 2007 ¶16. Completed two-week Advanced Driver Protective Skills Training Course for representatives of Tajik Law Enforcement agencies (Ministry of Interior, Drug Control Agency, State Committee for National Security). ¶17. The INL Project Engineer hired and on board. ¶18. Completed Scope of Work and bid conference for Border Guards Training Academy and State Committee for National Security Training Center projects. September 2007 ¶19. Completed renovation of Drug Control Agency mobile team training gym and shooting range, purchased and delivered all required equipment. ¶20. Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section met with supervisors and members of the Drug Control Agency Mobile Teams to conduct a review of Mobile Team performance and use of resources. Unit goals, priorities, and requirements were better defined and the group reviewed use of donated equipment and vehicles. All equipment and vehicles provided were accounted for. ¶21. Grant Agreement for Demining Project: $1,730 grant to the Tajik Mine Action Center. This money covers costs to facilitate Tajik government passage of the "Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities" under the Ottawa Convention. This measure will facilitate equal rights and protection under local laws for Tajiks who have been injured in mine-related accidents. ¶22. In order to improve existing Aviation Security Service, INL purchased and delivered to the Dushanbe Airport three Dell computers. ¶23. Handover of two specialized Honda All Terrain Vehicles for the Drug Control Agency's Mobile Teams; required training conducted and All Terrain Vehicle manuals translated. ¶24. Handover of specialized law enforcement equipment to representatives of Drug Control Agency and Ministry of Interior mobile team units with training. ¶25. Completed development, installation and training for new SONDA AFIS (fingerprint) center in the Ministry of Interior forensics lab. All historical data and arrest files with photos, biographical information and latent prints migrated and functioning well. Expansion of system will be completed in 2008 with interconnectivity with regional offices. -------------- INL ENGINEER -------------- ¶26. Due to the increase in INL-funded (and other Embassy agencies) construction projects and problems encountered over the last year dealing with local contractors, Embassy Dushanbe granted approval for INL to hire a full time Project Engineer. On September 3, 2007 the INL Project Engineer Mr. John McCann arrived in country. He has already visited the rural border post at Khirmanjo several times and fully revised a scope of work for the border post's renovation and passed it to Border Guards' engineer for evaluation. He has also visited the Nizhniy Pyanj Bridge to review construction projects for Customs facilities to be undertaken by the Office of Defense Cooperation. The INL Project Engineer also provided his expertise to procure two required Kamaz trucks for INL projects DUSHANBE 00001432 003 OF 004 in the region. -------------- Resident Legal Advisor -------------- ¶27. Since his arrival in March of 2007, the Resident Legal Advisor conducted a complete analysis of the Tajik Criminal Procedure Code and will be part of the Tajik Government's Working Group responsible for reviewing and revising the Tajik Criminal Procedure Code -- a major and most critical step in creating a comprehensive rule of law reform program in Tajikistan. -------------- - United Nations Office on Drugs Crime (UNODC) -------------- - ¶28. In June, UNODC, with U.S. Embassy representatives and the Tajik Drug Control Agency conducted the semi-annual International Working Group on administering "Phase Two" of the Tajikistan Drug Control Agency Project (AD/TAJ/03/HO3),which is fully funded by the USG. The session included a review of progress on benchmarks for the first six months of 2007 and a presentation and discussion of benchmark proposals for the second half of the year. Protracted discussions ensued regarding sustainability and what percentage of the Tajik government's resources have been invested into the Drug Control Agency. We agreed to meet again in July to discuss Drug Control Agency sustainability and to conduct a review of the operational capability of the Mobile Teams in September. Both subsequent meetings were fruitful in the sense that Embassy staff sent a clear message that more transparency on operational activities is required to continue to fund the Mobile Teams and that meaningful investigations leading to actual prosecutions is the ultimate measure of the Drug Control Agency's success, not the rate of seizures. (Note: Seizures by the Drug Control Agency decreased by nearly half in 2007 from 2006 due to shifts in local and regional command positions.) Embassy also reiterated that recurring costs and additional infrastructure to headquarters facilities would no longer be provided by the U.S. Government with the exception of salary supplements. The Drug Control Agency was also informed that they must begin to put together a plan to begin taking on responsibility for paying salary supplements by 2009. The group will meet again in December 2007. ¶29. During this period (Jan to Sept 2007) UNODC Regional Director Jim Callahan visited Embassy Dushanbe once to meet Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section staff. INL has voiced its concerns over the need for more contact with the regional headquarters but we have yet to see increased engagement on the part of UNODC. Meanwhile, E-23 project manager Sergey Bozhko was moved to his next post in Tehran without provision of a replacement. Embassy staff was not notified of this development until a last minute invitation to Bozhko's farewell party in July. The Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section looks forward to working with the new E-23 Project Manager when he/she arrives. -------------- -------------- International Organization for Migration (IOM) -------------- -------------- ¶30. IOM completed renovations on the second wing of the Khorog Regional Training Center for the Border Guards. Living accommodations, classrooms, cafeteria, etc. are provided for both Tajik and Afghan border guards. However, the Government of Tajikistan has yet to agree to conduct any joint training exercises with Afghan Border Guards. As a result of a full-court press by the major donor Embassies including the United States, Germany, UK and EU, there have been some signs that limited training may be allowed. Embassy will pursue this possibility in the coming months. IOM also continued to fund the Trafficked Victims Shelter in Dushanbe. Approximately 32 victims have passed through the facility from January 2007 to September 2007. ¶31. IOM has also proposed two additional projects, both of which were turned down by Embassy Dushanbe. The first was a proposed database to track trafficking in persons victims and cases. However, it was not integrated with existing database and intelligence gathering capabilities within law enforcement and was overpriced at $500,000. The second was a proposal to renovate/construct the Tajik-China border crossing point at DUSHANBE 00001432 004 OF 004 Kulma, Murghab in eastern Tajikistan. At present, the Narcotics and Law Enforcement Sectin does not believe that IOM has the capability to oversee such a large project and without significant oversight (which is difficult given the remoteness of the region); it would not be prudent to allow a third party implementer to subcontract local vendors. ¶32. The IOM Country Director is on his way out to his next post in Almaty. We have heard that the new director will take over by November 2007. We look forward to working with a new Director as the previous, Mahmoud Naderi, had seemed to have lost his enthusiasm for the job and worn out his welcome after 6 years on the ground. One major problem we hope to overcome is Naderi's tendency to enter into direct negotiations with the government of Tajikistan on projects for which funding was not available. Naderi would in essence use the Border Guards to press the USG to fund projects not yet vetted by any major donors. -------------- Women's Legal Initiative (INIS) -------------- ¶33. INL financially supported a Free Legal Assistance for Vulnerable Populations Project implemented by the Non-Governmental Organization "INIS." Report statistics show that during four months of 2007, from May to August, 38 males and 261 females applied and received legal support from the NGO. Several different training courses for prosecutors, defense advocates and law enforcement were conducted as well. The Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section is particularly interested in the joint seminars with law enforcement as we believe that in the long run, more awareness and better coordination between the police, advocates and prosecutors will enable investigations that are more successful and prosecutions of traffickers and perpetrators of domestic violence. The Narcotics and Law Enforcement Section will conduct a site visit to Khujand before the end of 2007. -------------- POSTPONED AND CANCELED ACTIVITIES -------------- ¶34. Due to the sudden drop in the level of transparency and open cooperation between the U.S. Embassy and the Border Guards now under the State Committee for National Security, INL cancelled the much-anticipated Border Guards Salary Supplement Program. Protracted negotiations over control of the bank and availability of border guard rosters made it clear that this program would not be feasible under the new management. Funds will be redirected to refurbish and reconstruct key areas of the Tajik-Afghan border. ¶35. Renovation and construction of the Border Guard Academy was put on hold for nearly six months due to prolonged negotiations with the State Committee for National Security over specifics on the project schematics. For some months between January and April it was unclear whether the Embassy was to work with the Border Guards directly or the State Committee's leadership. The Embassy is now engaging the Chief of the Border Guards, General Mirzoev, and his new staff to implement this project. A contract will probably be awarded by November 2007 and work will begin in December, weather permitting. ¶36. The Border Post at Khirmanjo was scheduled to be completed in the spring of 2007 but due to various failures on the part of the local contractor to complete the work at acceptable standards, the project is not completed and will be re-advertised with a new statement of work for re-bid. Our plans to finish the project before winter sets in this year may not be achieved. Therefore, INL will use recouped expenses from the first contract to provide for shelters and other emergency living facilities for the officers and border guards who are currently living outdoors. -------------- CONTACT INFORMATION -------------- ¶37. Embassy Dushanbe POC is INL officer Ranjeet Singh, office telephone: 992-37-229-2000 x2111, email: HYPERLINK "mailto:SinghRK@state.gov" SinghRK@state.gov HUSHEK