UZBEKISTAN/SCO: OFFICIAL DESCRIBES SCO'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000763 SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/CEN E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/01/2018 TAGS: AORC PREL ASEC KTIA PINR PINS PTER UZ SUBJECT: UZBEKISTAN/SCO: OFFICIAL DESCRIBES SCO'S COUNTERTERRORIST ACTIVITIES IN CENTRAL ASIA REF: A. TASHKENT 546 ¶B. TASHKENT 714 Classified By: Poloff Steven Prohaska for reasons 1.4 (b, d). ¶1. (C) Bakhram Auanassov, a Senior Expert from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization's (SCO) Regional Antiterrorist Structure (RATS),recently provided Poloff with a speech on the SCO's role in Central Asian security. He had intended to give the speech during the Tashkent-hosted international conference on Afghanistan in late April (reftel A),but may have avoided this due to time constraints. His comments reflect concerns about blocking terrorist financing, outline RATS priorities, and highlight RATS efforts to reach out to other international organizations. Auanassov claims that RATS activities have prevented a series of terrorist acts, thus facilitating economic and cultural cooperation between SCO members. His speech also includes some remarks on the worsening narcotics situation in Afghanistan after the Coalition's arrival. This, in conjunction with questions Auanassov has posed to Poloff on results of Coalition/ISAF efforts in Afghanistan (reftel B),suggests that the SCO is considering critiquing Coalition efforts there during its July conference on Afghanistan and the August SCO summit, both to be held in Dushanbe. He also asserts that the SCO is pursuing "real joint action" with Afghan authorities. ¶2. (SBU) Post's unofficial translation of Auanassov's speech follows: Let me express on behalf of the leadership of the Executive Committee of the Regional Antiterrorist Structure of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization gratitude to the sponsors of the conference for their invitation. The world community is intensifying its efforts to counteract international terrorism, separatism, and extremism. Besides the special services of countries, the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the SCO, and other regional organizations have engaged in this work. At the same time, terrorist activity is continuing to take place in practically all countries of the world, including on the territory of the SCO member-states. This concerns the Central Asian region as well, where the members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and Hizb-ut-Tahrir are trying to destabilize the situation. �A;Nevertheless, well-coordinated work of the special services of Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan permitted a series of successful operations terminating cells that belong to these organizations. In Kazakhstan, several members of the international terrorist organization "Islamic Party of Turkestan"--who under orders from their leaders abroad were enaged in recruiting activities among Kazakh citizens and the preparation of terrorist acts--have been detained. In contact with the National Security Service of Uzbekistan, a cell of the international terrorist organization "Jamiyat of Mujahideen of Central Asia" that was operating on the territory of some Central Asian states was destroyed. Analysis of the activity of the terrorist groups provides a basis for the conclusion that they, adjusting to new realities, are modifying the tactics and methods of their activity and their sources of funding. Definition of political goals is becoming a characteristic feature of the activity of terrorists. Slogans about the creation of a "worldwide caliphate" are more and more often being reinforced by specific demands to ensure the "rights and freedoms" of the Muslim population and to release individuals connected with terrorist activities from jails. Cells of international terrorist organizations operating on the territories of SCO member-states differ in their level of autonomy. They do not always follow the instructions of their bosses, but undertake certain actions depending on the developing situation in the country. The special services of many countries are implementing a series of measures on blocking sources of funding for terrorist organizations, so they have moved toward schemes outside of banks to attract and use money. Private donations and assets of criminal groups that are under the control of terrorists are often accumulated and transported by couriers as cash money, precious stones and metals. On the whole, the capabilities of many terrorist groups for self-financing have been preserved. In the meantime, profits from the narcotics business and other types of criminal activity are becoming a more substantial source of funding for terrorist groups. The rapidly expanding narcotics business that provides a substantial financial injection for terrorist, separatist, and extremist organizations is an important factor related to threats and challenges for SCO member-states. The harvesting of narcotics plants and the production and distribution of narcotics materials in Afghanistan is not only not decreasing, but after the arrival of the antiterrorist Coalition forces, unfortunately, has increased by four times, having reached 97 percent of world production. Considering that reliable blockage of the sources of funding, including that received from illegal drug trafficking, would be a serious blow to terrorist groups, the SCO in the framework of the "SCO-Afghanistan" Contact Group is taking steps on ensuring real joint action with Afghan authorities. First of all, this includes curtailing the production process of narcotics materials, supression of their transit through SCO-member states, and also the destruction of bases and training centers for militants functioning on the territory of the country. Thus, all necessary work on forming a normative and organizational basis for successful activity of this Contact Group has been done. The Plan on implementation of suggestions made at the Seventh Meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO (August 16, 2007 in Bishkek) and also the Plan of organizational measures on expanding multilateral cooperation of the SCO with Afghanistan were prepared. Effectively combating terrorism, separatism, and extremism is possible only under close mutual action between the special services and the law enforcement structures of the SCO member states. The aforementioned positive results achieved in fighting terrorism in 2007 serve as confirmation of this. In addition, coordination and mutual action of the appropriate authorities with the assistance of the Executive Committee of the SCO RATS have been implemented in the following directions: ¶A. Realization of joint operational measures. For example, the localization of negative processes in the Ferghana Valley capable of influencing the situation in the SCO was a result of this. ¶B. The exchange of preventive operational information that facilitates the prevention of terrorist acts. Thanks to such cooperation in 2006-2007, we managed to prevent a considerable number of terrorist acts on the territories of the SCO member-states. Together with this, the received information is actively used in the process of providing security during large-scale public-political events in the countries of the SCO. ¶C. Search and extradition by interested states of the leaders and members of terrorist organizations. Over this period of time, a significant number of members of terrorist organizations connected with many crimes have been found and extradited. For example, several persons wanted for terrorist activities have been extradited to Russia, Uzbekistan, and other SCO member-states by the appropriate authorities in Kazakhstan. The extradition of these persons to Russia allowed Russia's Federal Security Service to find new hidden warehouses of weapons and solve several crimes in the North Caucasus. Kazakhstan's National Security Committee extradited to Russia members of illegal armed formations who intended to conduct terrorist acts in the Russian Federation with the involvement of Kazakh citizens. Kazakhstan extradited three persons to Uzbekistan who were accused by Uzbek law enforcement bodies of committing very serious crimes, including terrorism, intentional murder, and sabotage. There are also several other examples of active work of the appropriate authorities in this direction. ¶D. Holding joint antiterrorist exercises. For improvement of the practical skills of joint action of the appropriate authorities of the SCO member-states, the exercises "East-Antiterror 2006", "Tian Shan No. 1 2006", and "Issyk Kul Antiterror 2007" were conducted on the territory of Kyrgyzstan with the assistance of the SCO RATS. The purpose of their activity was to perfect joint action between the force structures of the member-states in the exercises during implementation of special operations neutralizing terrorist groups and increasing the preparedness of antiterrorist units for practical action. Besides this, they refined joint measures on protection of the state border during the implementation of the antiterrorist operation and perfected the system of mutual notification between appropriate authorities. The leadership and personnel of the force structures that were participating in implementation received practical experience in planning and preparation of special measures. With the goal of increasing the effectiveness of the special services and law enforcement bodies, first and foremost their joint action in the framework of the SCO, the RATS jointly with the representatives of the appropriate authorities of the SCO member-states have worked out several normative legal and other documents. Besides this, efforts have been concentrated on forming a Single List of terrorist, separatist, and extremist organizations, the activity of which has been forbidden in all SCO member states. For the creation of such a list, the principle question from the legal point of view is: what are the consequences of recognition by one of the SCO countries of a terrorist (or separatist or extremist) organization for other SCO member-states? The Council of the SCO RATS has worked out and approved the Statutes on a Single List of Wanted Persons identified by the special services of the SCO countries for committing--or being suspected of committing--terrorist, separatist, and extremist crimes. The Single List of the Wanted Persons started to function in 2006. The creation and introduction of the protected database is increasing the effectiveness of cooperation in the framework of the SCO RATS and giving it a more clear and purposeful character. For implementation of the statutes of the Agreement on Long-Term Good Neighborly Relations, Friendship and Cooperation that the SCO member-states signed in August 2007 at the Summit of SCO Heads of State in Bishkek, in particular on active development of cooperation on counteracting illegal weapons trafficking, the Executive Committee with the participation of SCO experts is finishing work on a draft agreement on cooperation between the governments of the SCO member-states in combating the trafficking of illegal weapons, ammunition, and explosive substances. Along with what has been stated, contacts and joint actions of the SCO RATS with international organizations has strengthened. These organizations include: the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO),the Antiterrorist Center and Coordination Service of the Council of the Commanders of Border Guard Troops of the CIS member-states, the Antiterrorist Union of the OSCE Secretariat and the Office of the Coordinator of the OSCE Projects in Tashkent, the Regional Mission fo the Representative of the UNODC in Central Asia, the United Nations Counterterrorist Committee and the UNSC Committee for Sanctions Against Al-Qaida and the Taliban, Interpol, and diplomatic missions accredited in Uzbekistan. All of this facilitated clarifying the approaches of these parties to the problem and to the search for areas of common interest permitting coordinated steps in the international arena to combat new challenges and threats. As has already been mentioned, thanks to the measures that have been taken, we have been able to not only localize negative processes in the SCO region, but also to control them. As a result of this, the situation remains stable and predictable, and this facilitates integrational processes and also the expansion of social-economic and cultural cooperation, i.e. solving those tasks that were determined by the Charter of the SCO. The terrorist organizations will strive to complete their missions on the territories of the member-states of the SCO by finding gaps in the operating systems for providing security. Taking this into account, in our opinion, it is necessary to further develop the effectiveness of combating new challenges and threats. In 2008, the efforts of the Executive Committee directed at the creation of the "Single List of Terrorist, Separatist, and Extremist Organizations, the Activity of Which is Forbidden in all SCO Member-States," the completion of the "SCO Convention on Prevention of Terrorism" that will determine the procedures and criteria for labelling organizations as terrorist, separatist, and extremist, and the "Agreement on Preparation of Cadres for Antiterrorist Formations of the SCO Member-States" are at the final stage. We, together with the appropriate authorities, are working on the issue of unifying the national normative legal bills on fighting terrorism that will allow creating a single approach in fighting international terrorism in the SCO member-states. The work on preparation of information materials which analyze the aspirations, tendencies, forms, and methods of terrorist group activity which threaten the security of SCO member-states is being conducted purposefully. The aforementioned materials are being sent to the appropriate authorities and will be published in the informational bulletins of the Executive Committee in a timely fashion. Besides this, the forms and methods of implementation of propaganda work that reveals specific examples of the true goals of terrorist, separatism, and extremism are being refined. NORLAND