PENJIKENT, TAJIKISTAN: ISOLATED BY REGIONAL BUREAUCRACY AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 000967 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL EAID ECON EAGR ENRG TI UZ SUBJECT: PENJIKENT, TAJIKISTAN: ISOLATED BY REGIONAL BUREAUCRACY AND GEOGRAPHY, BUT STILL VIBRANT DUSHANBE 00000967 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. Summary: A June 20-22 trip to Penjikent and Aini districts in western Tajikistan illuminated how bilateral problems with Uzbekistan strangle the economy and trade for Tajik districts in the Zarafshan valley. In Penjikent city, officials and citizens expressed support for President Rahmon, but noted that every family relies on remittances from Russia to make ends meet. In addition, the closed border means that Tajik agricultural products cannot access railways and markets in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, only 60 kilometers to the west, but must instead be transported over high mountain passes and terrible roads to Dushanbe or Khujand. U.S.-funded assistance projects have drastically reduced malnutrition rates in remote mountain villages by training village health committees and workers, but some communities remain snowed in four to five months each year, accessible only by donkey or foot, with no health care or fresh food. End Summary. SANDWICHED BETWEEN A ROCK ~ AND MORE ROCKS -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶2. The wide valley of Penjikent district lies between two craggy mountain ranges, jutting into Uzbekistan. In the Soviet days, and up until the Uzbeks closed the border in 1998, people in Penjikent and the greater Zarafshan river valley looked to Samarkand to export their produce and tobacco, and used the Samarkand rail connections for imports and exports. The Uzbek border has now become a major obstacle to travel and trade. Only residents of Penjikent city and the areas within 50 km of the border can cross for up to five days without a visa. Penjikent shops displayed some Uzbek goods-Coca Cola, juice, bottled water, chocolate and ice cream, but the lack of customs services at the border means that commerce is restricted to suitcase traders and smugglers. Tajik officials doubt that the Uzbek government will lift the bureaucratic restrictions on border crossings any time in the near future. ¶3. Penjikent district has little industry - a single cannery, a tobacco factory and a British-owned gold mine (that the Chinese are considering buying out) -- and the economy relies on tobacco, potatoes, rice, wheat, grapes, orchards and vegetable plots. Archeologists have been excavating the ancient ruins outside of Penjikent for many years and hope to turn them into a tourist attraction, along with the burial ground of the tenth century Tajik poet Rudaki. Many Tajik journalists, writers and poets hail from Penjikent and a governmental official promised PolOff that her visit to the inspirational region would "open her talents for poetry." Tourism, like commerce, was limited by the border although hikers sometimes come from Samarkand through special tour companies to trek the through the famed Fan mountains to Dushanbe. (Comment: After two jostling days in the car, PolOff would have preferred to return to Dushanbe on foot. End Comment.) ¶4. PolOffs endured almost nine hours of bone-jarring roads and the 3500 meter Anzob pass to reach Penjikent June 20, a trip that as late as 1994 took less than six hours. Deputy District Chairman Zafarjon Atoev and Hakimboy Makhkamov were upbeat about Penjikent's prospects, but noted that labor remittances from Russia keep families in the district going. Despite the closed border and open bilateral tension over energy, the district enjoyed a steady supply of electricity and gas from Uzbekistan last winter, with several hours in the mornings and evenings (even when other parts of Tajikistan were completely dark). Geography shielded the Zarafshan valley from the Tajik civil war - a strategically destroyed bridge literally cut the valley off from the fighting in the south and residents reported no fallout. ¶5. Although farmers in Penjikent carry none of the debt burdening cotton growers in the south, the farmers working the district's 20,000 hectares face the challenges of poor transportation and a lack of market access. Makhkamov claimed Penjikent wine once took a gold medal at a Moscow competition. (Comment: California wines have nothing to fear should Tajik wines hit the world market. Vinegar producers, beware. End Comment.) Penjikent's biggest liability is the poor condition of the roads linking north and south -- something officials hoped will be remedied after the Chinese finish reconstructing the Dushanbe-Khujand road in 2009. Two government officials (and alumni of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cochran Fellowship Program) echoed Makhkamov's comments about DUSHANBE 00000967 002.2 OF 003 Penjikent's agricultural potential, noting the lack of food processing facilities and transportation routes limited the farmers' ability to grow anything other than potatoes and tobacco as significant cash crops. IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, AMERICA FIGHTING MALNUTRITION -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶6. Despite the abundance of produce and food, many remote parts of the district until recently had childhood malnutrition rates approaching 50 percent, due to disease and a lack of understanding about nutrition. Working in 143 villages in Penjikent district and 61 in Aini district, the U.S.-funded non-governmental organization Save the Children has reduced those rates to eight percent or lower in many communities. Project managers took PolOffs two hours up into the Fan mountains, to see community health workers teaching young children about hygiene and nutrition, and to meet a group of young women, and their mothers-in-law, talking about breast feeding. Save the Children's Gulchera Boboeva estimated that the five year, $1 million project had helped 36,000 children under five years old and 60,000 women of reproductive age. ¶7. Many mountain communities are completely cut off from the main roads once the snows fall in October. The villages subsist on food grown in small, steep vegetable plots during the short summer season, and money sent from Russia. Aside from the occasional old man, women populated the villages -- and without men to work the land, grandmothers cared for the children while the younger women farmed. Save the Children has targeted caregivers as well as mothers with its health messages, and also trained village health workers to help identify problems and get patients to medical care sooner rather than later. ¶8. Save the Children workers described an outstanding working relationship with local government officials and the central hospital, reporting no hassles or bureaucratic barriers to prevent them from conducting their work. Boboeva noted wistfully that because the program is scheduled to end in September 2007, and no new funding has been identified, Save may cease its operations entirely. She felt confident that elements of the program were sustainable, but noted that many communities needed continued monitoring and technical assistance to ensure that their inhabitants remained healthy. AINI AT THE CROSSROADS -------------- ¶9. To the east of Penjikent, Aini district sits at Tajikistan's northern crossroads, equidistant from Dushanbe and Khujand -- but much closer to Samarkand than to either Tajik city. District chairman Shodikul Bobojonov claims the district is 98 percent mountains. Like Penjikent, residents of Aini rely heavily on labor migrants in Russia to supplement the small family farms. Several mining operations are located in the Aini mountains -- including the U.S. company COMSUP's antimony mine, and a coal deposit that Tajik officials hope to develop for a thermal power station. However, Bobojonov criticized the idea of building a thermal power station, noting it would be bad for the district's air quality and environment. "We have so much hydro-power potential," he said, that it doesn't make sense to exploit coal. He observed that the Chinese road construction hadn't brought much economic benefit to the district, but predicted that once it was completed, there would be more commerce, and tourists. Bobojonov also lamented the sad state of the district's snow removal equipment, noting most of the machinery was from the 1950s-1970s and not hydraulic. Like Penjikent, Aini receives a limited but steady supply of electricity and gas from Uzbekistan through the winter. ¶10. In addition to Save the Children's child survival project, a European Union-funded program through the organization German Agro Action targets rural villages eking out a living on the combined 2000 hectares of arable lands. Project Manager Ira Pavlovski said they work with families -- many headed by women -- to improve the quality and quantity of foods grown. The district lies too high to grow many crops or fruits, but potatoes have proven a successful cash crop -- these are also limited by the transportation problems on the bumpy road. Pavlovski underscored the excellent cooperation she enjoys with the district government for their projects, and commented that DUSHANBE 00000967 003.2 OF 003 the government and organizations working in the districts had recently held a coordination meeting to ensure better cooperation and avoid duplication of efforts. ¶11. Comment: Unlike other parts of Tajikistan, where electricity and unemployment top the lists of problems for the citizens and government, Penjikent and Aini seem well-supplied with gas and light from Uzbekistan, even as Uzbek politics prevents their districts from reaching bigger markets and trading freely. The openness and cooperation non-governmental organizations enjoy with local authorities demonstrates that while government officials in Dushanbe might view many non-governmental organizations as suspect, at the local government level, a stronger attitude of cooperation has led to some serious success. End Comment. JACOBSON