UZBEKISTAN'S BORDER GUARD AND CUSTOMS OFFICIALS

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000002 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPT FOR SCA/CEN, EXBS (JEFF HARTSHORN),INL (ANDREW BUHLER) E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/28/2017 TAGS: PGOV PBTS PREL SNAR PTER AF UZ SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN'S BORDER GUARD AND CUSTOMS OFFICIALS DISCUSS BORDER SECURITY REF: A. TASHKENT 1908 ¶B. TASHKENT 2081 Classified By: Poloff Steven Prohaska for reasons 1.4 (b, d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Julia Khersonsky, who works at the University of Georgia's Washington DC-based Center for International Trade and Security (CITS),briefed Poloff on her recent meetings with Border Guard and Customs officials. They were highly appreciative of past U.S. assistance in border security and discussed their ongoing cooperation with other countries and organizations as well as a few of their specific needs. Oddly, we have not yet received an official response from the GOU regarding specific border security activities it would like to pursue or its views of our proposed modalities and information-sharing agreement, perhaps reflecting their preoccupation with the December 23 Presidential election. End summary. ¶2. (C) Julia Khersonsky, who works at the University of Georgia's Washington DC-based Center for International Trade and Security (CITS),met with Poloff on December 25 and briefed him on meetings that day with Border Guard and Customs officials. (Note: CITS will play an important role in the Department's and Post's plans for a future EXBS nonproliferation training event for GOU officials at the University of Georgia. End note.) A summary of her meetings follows. BORDER GUARD OFFICIALS PRAISE TRAINING, OUTLINE GOALS -------------- -------------- ¶3. (C) The Border Guard officials present at the meeting included Deputy Commander Habiev and a representative from the International Relations Department named Akhmedov. Khersonsky indicated that they appeared uneasy when speaking with her and said they had not heard anything about Post's proposed modalities agreement on bilateral border security cooperation. (Note: Post sent the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) a proposed agreement delineating rules on information-sharing and bilateral cooperation on December 12. MFA Americas Desk Chief assured us he was sharing the document with concerned GOU offices for comments. End note.) The Border Guards are primarily conscripts, and have a total strength of 15,000 personnel, they said. The officials spoke highly of the EXBS program, specifically citing the willingness of EXBS officials to coordinate assistance with the Border Guards and tailor it to their specific needs. They also described the U.S.-funded portal monitoring training for the Border Guards, Customs, and Institute of Nuclear Physics as having been excellent. ¶4. (C) They said that equipment, training, and living conditions for their personnel were their top priorities. The Border Guard officials were concerned about their ability to patrol mountainous and desert areas, and were particularly interested in all-terrain vehicles for mountainous areas. They also expressed interest in tents that could protect their personnel from the elements. ¶5. (C) The Border Guard officials were very interested in receiving training at the University of Georgia and said they hoped that the number of GOU participants could be increased. They hoped to learn more about legal and judicial issues associated with border security; how the GOU could reform its procedures to be more compliant with international standards; and how other countries use modern technologies in their border security efforts. When Khersonsky cited recent reforms in the Chilean border security forces as a possible example for them to study, the Border Guard officials seemed skeptical. CUSTOMS OFFICIALS GIVE WARM RECEPTION, DISCUSS COOPERATION -------------- -------------- ¶6. (C) Customs officials who met with Khersonsky included Deputy Chairman of Customs Mansurov, Deputy Director of the General Directorate on the Organization of Customs Control Akramov, and Director of the International Relations Department of Customs Hudaigerbenova. The Customs officials raved about the technical capacity of the 500-student Tashkent Customs Institute, which opened four years ago and had received $250,000 in computer equipment from the USG. ¶7. (C) The officials said they want to improve Customs' effectiveness because they have major concerns about narcotics and terrorism stemming from Afghanistan. They also highlighted the danger of proliferation, citing three previous examples of interdicting radioactive materials from aboard two trucks and a train car (ref B). ¶8. (C) Customs is pushing for increased training with other countries and organizations in line with a Presidential Decree on the matter. The Cabinet of Ministers is currently reviewing a new Customs Code (Comment: This could presage reforms in Customs over the next few years. End comment.) They noted that five of their personnel receive training from the Moscow Customs Academy each year, with one student studying at the academy in Russia and the other four taking distance learning classes in Uzbekistan. Customs is actively cooperating with a variety of organizations including Technical Aid to the Commonwealth of Independent States (TACIS),the UNDP/EU Border Management in Central Asia (BOMCA) program, Japanese Customs, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the Eurasian Economic Community. The officials also praised the EXBS program and listed the specific assistance they had received from it. They said that BOMCA is helping the GOU to establish a special drug patrol unit at Tashkent Airport to help identify instances of narcotrafficking. COMMENT: -------------- ¶9. (C) Khersonsky was received at a relatively high level and on short notice after the Embassy brought her expertise and role as lead implementer in an EXBS project to the attention of MFA. A teenage imigri from Uzbekistan to the U.S., she was already well and favorably known to the GOU, who invited her as one of eight private American citizens to observe the presidential election. ¶10. (C) GOU officials with whom Khersonsky and we have interacted have been highly laudatory and appreciative of the value of USG-provided training and equipment for border security. It is thus curious that the GOU has been so slow in responding to our proposed modalities and information-sharing agreement and our request that they identify specific bilateral border projects to pursue from those discussed at the joint working group meeting in November (ref A). This could be due at least in part to the GOU's preoccupation with the recently concluded presidential elections. As of December 26, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has assured us that the government is considering both of our requests. NORLAND