UZBEKS AND AFGHANS SPAR OVER COUNTERNARCOTICS

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000990

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/CEN AND INL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/21/2017
TAGS: SNAR PREL ZK
SUBJECT: UZBEKS AND AFGHANS SPAR OVER COUNTERNARCOTICS

Classified By: CDA Brad Hanson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) The Italian Ambassador convened the semi-annual
meeting of the Mini-Dublin Group for Uzbekistan and
Tajikistan May 10 by providing an overview of the narcotics
situation in Central Asia and Afghanistan, which he called "a
disaster." Talk is nice, he said, but more action is needed.
Addressing United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC)
Regional Representative James Callahan, the Ambassador said
that Italy is, in particular, "fed up" with excuses for why
the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination
Center (CARICC) is not yet operational. Continuing delays
are unacceptable, he said, and urged that UNODC approach
donors for help if it is unable to resolve problems caused by
CARICC-member states lack of political will. (Comment: Then
DCM made the same point to Callahan on December 28. End
comment.)


2. (C) Kamol Dusmetov, Chief of Uzbekistan's National Center
for Drug Control, attributed the region's narcotics problems
to the situation in Afghanistan. The problem, he said, is
that the Afghan government and international community is not
doing enough to establish alternative livelihood programs.
This statement engendered a strong response from the Afghan
Ambassador, who said that the real problem is with terrorist
and criminal groups which benefit from continued drug
production and that these groups must be dealt with before
alternative livelihood programs will succeed. It would be
useful, the Ambassador said, if Afghanistan's neighbors would
do more than just criticize the country's counternarcotics
efforts, perhaps by increasing their efforts to control the
flow of precursor chemicals into Afghanistan. Dusmetov
responded that Uzbekistan cannot be expected to control the
flow of drugs from, and precursors to, Afghanistan without
much more assistance from donors. Dusmetov had no response
to the Italian Ambassador's suggestion that perhaps this
would not be such a problem if Uzbekistan would devote some
of the resources to narcotics and precursor control that it
now uses to prevent foreign vehicles and wine from entering
the country.


3. (C) Comment: The Italian Ambassador's suggestion aside,
participants were noticeably less critical of the Uzbeks than
in previous meetings. Post attributes this more to
Dusmetov's attendance than to any major improvement in
Uzbekistan's cooperation with the international community on
narcotics issues. Dusmetov's attendance at the meeting marks
the first time that the Government of Uzbekistan has
participated in the Mini-Dublin Group in at least the past
two years. Unfortunately, he brought little to the meeting
beyond the usual complaints that the international community
is not doing enough to fight drugs in Afghanistan or
providing enough assistance to Uzbekistan.


4. (C) Comment, continued: Post agrees with the Italian
Ambassador that it is past time for CARICC to become
operational. According to UNODC, the delays have been caused
mostly by Kazkahstan not having turned the building where
CARICC is to be housed over to the UN. Additionally, some
member countries, including Russia, have not yet signed the
documents establishing CARICC, although the Russian
representative said this would happen "soon." In Post's
view, the time is approaching when Washington and other
donors may want to consider engaging directly with the
governments in question in an attempt to stiffen what appears
to be flagging political will to see CARICC in operation.
HANSON