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.
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