Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08DUSHANBE1514
2008-12-15 06:19:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Dushanbe
Cable title:  

TAJIKISTAN: NARCOTICS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND JUSTICE SECTOR

Tags:  SNAR KCRM KJUS PGOV PREL RF TI 
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VZCZCXRO5963
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHNEH RUEHPW RUEHSK RUEHVK
RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #1514/01 3500619
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 150619Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1255
INFO RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE VIENNA AU
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0232
RUCNCLS/SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 0249
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEABND/DEA HQ WASHINGTON DC
RUEAWJA/DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 DUSHANBE 001514 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN (HUSHEK)
INL/AAE (BUHLER)
JUSTICE FOR (DUCOT AND NEWCOMBE)
DEFENSE FOR OSD/P

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR KCRM KJUS PGOV PREL RF TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: NARCOTICS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND JUSTICE SECTOR
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER UPDATE

REF: Dushanbe 1379

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 DUSHANBE 001514

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN (HUSHEK)
INL/AAE (BUHLER)
JUSTICE FOR (DUCOT AND NEWCOMBE)
DEFENSE FOR OSD/P

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR KCRM KJUS PGOV PREL RF TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: NARCOTICS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND JUSTICE SECTOR
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER UPDATE

REF: Dushanbe 1379


1. Summary: The November visit by SCA DAS Krol provided welcomed
insights into U.S. plans for Central Asia. EU and OSCE colleagues
are still working to improve technical capacity for drug
interdiction and Finland continues to stress strategic border
management. Tajik law enforcement agencies have seized drugs at
increased rates over last year but have so far arrested only low
level couriers. INL's justice sector program is providing defense
attorneys with access to legal information necessary to defend
clients, help the Judicial Council initiate transparent professional
selection and training of judges, and is preparing to provide
numerous grants to improve access to justice, court monitoring, and
other programs. End summary.

INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS


2. President Rahmon proffered joint training for Tajik and Afghan
law enforcement officers during his keynote speech at the late
October ministerial conference on "Border Management and Drug
Control in Central Asia". While Pierre Morel, EU Special
Representative for Central Asia, hailed the success of the
conference as reported reftel, beyond Rahmon's remarks the
conference has not yet yielded substantive results.


3. DAS Krol's visit and November 11 speech, "Central Asia and
Afghanistan: An American Perspective," on the heels of the U.S.
election reassured academics, Tajik officials, and diplomats about
the Obama administration. We sensed collective relief from the
audience when DAS Krol said that he did not anticipate any dramatic
change in U.S. policy towards Afghanistan after January 21.
Interlocutors are concerned that the U.S. will leave Afghanistan
without stabilizing it, and that in turn would impact Tajikistan.


4. The Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Center
(CARICC) was formally established when deputies of the Majlisi
Namoyandagon (TajikistanQs lower chamber of parliament) ratified the
agreement on November 12. Rustam Nazarov, Director of The Drug
Control Agency, sponsored the legislation. With Tajikistan's
ratification, the Almaty-based Center can become fully operational.

He noted that the Center's main goal was to promote cooperation
among law enforcement agencies in the region to enhance
counternarcotics activities. The drug control chief said that
CARICC member states would consider Afghanistan membership after the
Center becomes fully operational. The Center has liaison officers
seconded from member states whose role is to ensure cooperation
between CARICC and the law enforcement authorities in the respective
countries. To date, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan have
posted liaison officers to the Center. The center has established
contacts with Interpol which plans to establish a liaison office at
CARICC in the near future.

MUTUAL COOPERATION


5. On October 27 during bilateral consultations, Anne Holmlund,
Finland's Minister of Interior, offered to provide financial
assistance to Tajik border guards. According to the Border Guards,
and confirmed by Finnish sources, the two sides discussed smuggling
narcotics via the Tajik-Afghan border, intensifying efforts to halt
drug trafficking and illegal migration, and countering international
Qdrug trafficking and illegal migration, and countering international
terrorism and religious extremism.


6. UNDP and EU-BOMCA conducted a one-month refresher training course
for drug detecting dogs and Border Guard dog handlers in
mid-November. Kazakh experts from the National Security Committee
of Kazakhstan conducted the training course for twelve
drug-detecting dogs of the Tajik Border Force from border areas in
Sughd, Khatlon and Gorno Badakhshan provinces. The experts trained
the dogs in Dushanbe at the Dog Training Center of the National Drug
Control Agency (DCA).

NOTABLE NARCOTICS AND WEAPONS SEIZURES


7. The Drug Control Agency reported that Tajik law-enforcement
authorities seized over five metric tons of narcotics in the first
ten months of 2008. This includes 1.5 tons of heroin, 1.7 tons of
raw opium, and 2.0 tons of cannabis. During the same period,
foreign law enforcement officials detained 227 Tajik nationals,
among them 17 women. Officers detained 192 Tajiks in Russia, ten in

DUSHANBE 00001514 002 OF 004


Kazakhstan, ten in Uzbekistan, and six in Kyrgyzstan.


8. (U) On October 3, the Border Guards, who are a directorate within
the State Committee for National Security, reported a large drug
haul of 204 kilograms in the Shuroabod area of Khatlon province on
the Tajik-Afghan border. The Border Guards were on routine patrol
and spotted a group of armed persons who were illegally crossing the
border river


9. Drug trafficking is not limited to the area bordering
Afghanistan. Since the beginning of 2008, law officers in the
former Soviet Union detained 42 residents of the northern Sughd
province, including three women, for drug trafficking reported
Muzaffar Boqiyev, First Deputy of the Sughd regional prosecutor's
office. Officials detained 26 Sogdians in Russia, three in
Kazakhstan, ten in Uzbekistan, and three in Kyrgyzstan.


10. Neither does age seem to be a limiting factor in drug
trafficking. According to the Sughd police, on October 22 officers
in the Bobojonghafurov district seized over 24 kilograms of hashish
from 72-year-old Khoujahasan Rahmonov, a resident of the city of
Taboshar and his 37-year-old accomplice of Dushanbe, Jamila
Vazirova.



11. The Ministry of Internal Affairs continues to seize narcotics as
well. On October 28, officers of the Ministry's department for
combating drug trafficking seized 6.5 kilograms of heroin from a
37-year-old resident of Dushanbe, Rajabali Qurbonov.


12. Foreigners are also arrested. On November 8, an operation by
officers from the Drug Control Agency led to the arrest of two
Afghan drug traffickers in Dushanbe, 45-year old Nourullo valadi
Abdullo and 21-year old Muhammad valadi Ghulommuhammad who had over
a kilo of heroin. Another operation resulted in the arrest of
another Afghan national, 65-year old Muhammad Yoqoub valadi
Abdulaziz, and the seizure of almost a kilo of heroin. Criminal
proceedings have been instituted against the Afghan
narco-traffickers and an investigation is under way.


13. Tajikistan's Customs Service is also interdicting narcotics.
According to Custom's officials since the beginning of this year
they have seized over eight kilos of narcotics at Nizhniy Pyanj
border crossing point with Afghanistan.

DRUG DEMAND REDUCTION


14. On October 26, 2008 at the 5th International Sato Tecuo
Karate-do Tournament, DCM Necia Quast handed out prizes to the
karate champions and the winners of the QWhy Drugs Are BadQ essay
competition. INL Dushanbe sponsored the tournament as part of its
effort to reduce drug consumption. The project appeals to high
school students in Dushanbe, Khujand and Khatlon to lead an active,
healthy lifestyle by showing the successes of dedicated athletes.
The message will be reinforced when karate champions speak at
selected schools about the dangers of drug use and serve as positive
role-models for leading a drug-free lifestyle

BORDER GUARDS


15. Tajikistan upgraded border outposts in the northern Sughd
province on the border with Uzbekistan and Krygyzstan. Sodiq
Bobojonov of the Sughd regional administration said that
construction of new and renovation of existing border outposts
should be completed in the Sughd province by the end of this year.
Qshould be completed in the Sughd province by the end of this year.
The border outposts are located Zafarobod, Istaravshan, Konibodom,
Qairoqqum, Isfara, Shahriston, Asht, Spitamen, Jabborrasulov,
Kuhistoni Mastchoh and Ghonchi districts. Bobojonov noted that the
Tajik-Uzbek commission for delineation of border was completing its
work in northern Tajikistan, while work of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border
commission was on-going.

JUSTICE SECTOR


16. On October 9 the Open Society Institute's (OSI) legal program in
partnership with the Constitutional Court of Tajikistan and NGO
"Bureau of Human Rights and Rule of Law" conducted a roundtable on
improving constitutional court proceedings. OSI conducted a series
of the similar round tables on the regional level in Khujand,

DUSHANBE 00001514 003 OF 004


Khorog, Kulyab and Qurghon-Teppa aiming to support the justice
sector reform program in Tajikistan. The goal of the reform program
is to improve constitutional court activities by informing citizens
that they can address complaints to the Constitutional Court, and
informing them about additions to the law governing operation of the
Constitutional Court.


17. On Friday, October 17, DCM signed over $12,000 of computer
equipment from INL to the Judicial Training Center at the Justice
Council as the part of a project to support reform and professional
improvement of Tajikistan's justice sector. INL is collaborating
with the Justice Council and Judicial Training Center to improve the
selection and training process for new judges and to provide sitting
judges with access to international developments in judicial
methodology. INL's justice sector program includes projects with
the American Bar Association to reform the criminal procedures code,
assist TajikistanQs defense bar associations, and expand secular law
courses at the Islamic University.


18. INL Dushanbe received 27 applications for grants to support 2009
projects under the Justice Sector Reform Program. INL and the other
members of the embassy's Development Assistance Working Group
chaired by the DCM will select recipients for grants up to a maximum
of $50,000. The grants will promote reform in legal sector by
supporting legal aid, rural law education, access to justice, court
monitoring, and third party arbitration.



19. On Friday, December 5, Charge' presented a plaque to Naim
Amirbekov, Chairman of the National Collegium of Defense Attorneys,
commemorating the dedication of the Legal Resource Center at the
National Collegium, the second of three collegia where ABA has
created resource centers. The resource center contains a
commercially available database providing lawyers with access to
Tajikistan's laws and criminal procedures. On October 24, INL
officer presented a plaque during the dedication of the resource
center at the Dushanbe Defense Attorney Collegium. Defense
attorneys themselves suggested the creation of resource centers with
legal databases for attorneys' use, because of the difficulty of
preparing cases for clients and defending the rights of the accused
without access to the necessary legal information.


20. INL's cooperative program with ABA works with all three collegia
to raise the qualifications and improve the professionalism of
defense attorneys. ABA and INL will open the resource center for
the Sughd Collegium shortly. The project provides training and
information to balance the adversarial relationship between defense
and prosecution, raise professional regard for defense attorneys
within the justice system, enhance attorneys' skills and improve
their legal knowledge, provide accountability of defense attorneys
to their clients, and improve professional delivery of legal
services.

CORRUPTION


21. The Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption
instituted criminal proceedings against Mahmadullo Qurbonov,
ex-director of the Nurek hydroelectric power station, and charged
him with embezzlement of state funds. The Agency reported that
Qhim with embezzlement of state funds. The Agency reported that
Qurbonov and his deputy, Mahmadali Halimov, jointly with top
managers of the limited liability company Nourafzo-2005, embezzled
580,000 somoni in state funds in January 2006 by forging documents
for purchase of spare parts. In addition, authorities assert that
the Nurek power station administration misappropriated 702,700
somoni (over $206,000) while making a deal with the limited
liability company Komron-Sh. The Agency initiated a criminal case
against Qurbonov and Halimov under Criminal Code articles 245,
embezzlement or misappropriation of funds and 323, forgery.


22. The Agency charged a senior teller with the National Bank of
Tajikistan, Mustafo Asrorov, of embezzlement of funds from the
Dushanbe Customs directorate. According to reports, Asrorov visited
the Dushanbe customs directorate twice in June of this year and
received a total of 1,640,687 somoni in cash (over $480,000) which
he embezzled by submitting forged receipts posting the sums to an
account.



23. In January-September 2008 in the Sughd province, the Agency

DUSHANBE 00001514 004 OF 004


detected 152 corruption-related and economic crimes. According to
Agency reports, this included 30 crimes related to misappropriation
of state funds, 16 crimes related to bribery, 12 tax evasion cases,
and 26 fraud cases. Over the report period, 29 corruption-related
cases investigated by the Sughd anticorruption directorate have
already moved to courts.

JACOBSON