TAJIKISTAN FINALLY TO TRAIN AFGHAN BORDER GUARDS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 DUSHANBE 000302

SIPDIS

STATE FOR SCA/CEN (HUSHEK)
INL/AAE (BUHLER)
ISN/ECC (HARTSHORN)
DEFENSE FOR OSD/P

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR KCRM PGOV AF TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN FINALLY TO TRAIN AFGHAN BORDER GUARDS

DUSHANBE 00000302 001.2 OF 002



1. Summary: After months of deliberation and several public
and private pronouncements by President Rahmon, General Gafarov,
Deputy Chairman of the Committee for National Security, told
INL, EXBS and OSCE officers on March 2 that Tajikistan was
prepared to go forward with joint training of Afghan and Tajik
border guards but only at the U.S.-financed regional training
center in Khorog. He also said Tajikistan welcomed the idea of
training counter-drug agents of both countries there. End
summary.




2. General Gafarov, Deputy Chairman of the Committee for
National Security,, meeting at the MFA with INL, EXBS, and OSCE
officers on March 2 said that the Government of Tajikistan was
willing to go forward with joint training of Afghan and Tajik
border guards but only in Khorog, the capital of the
Gorno-Badakshan Autonomous Area of Tajikistan. This is the
first concrete step by the Committee for National Security after
several public and private pronouncements by President Rahmom
stretching back over a year. The KNB General said the Tajiks
were only prepared to invite limited numbers of Afghans with the
exact numbers to be worked out with the Afghan government. He
asserted that the border crossing points on the Afghan side were
staffed with only 20 soldiers so more than five absent on
training would be an unacceptable burden on operations. Gafarov
said the focus should be on how to improve coordination and
inspection skills to facilitate trade via bridges at Ishkashim,
Khorog, and Darvaz border crossing points.




3. Emboffs pressed for inclusion of the Border Guard officers
and soldiers of the Nizhniy Pyanj/Sher Khan Bandar port of entry
but Gafarov pushed back, saying that the U.S.-built bridge was
too far from the Khorog training facility and that Nizhniy Pyanj
was a busy crossing point where joint training would disrupt the
work of the post. Pressed again, he threw up his hands in
(false?) exasperation and agreed to train at/near the bridge but
only if donors built a regional training center there because
there were no suitable facilities available. He firmly stated
that Afghans were not going to be trained in Dushanbe.




4. We agreed to do the initial phase of training at the Khorog
Regional Training Center but reserved the option to train those
in and near Nizhniy Pyanj in the following phase of the project,
after identifying a training facility closer to the bridge.
Previously Gafarov had told us that he was looking for a
dormitory in Dushanbe where he could lock up the Afghan trainees
at night otherwise they would "walk away and do business."




5. The Khorog Border Guard Training Center is an ongoing
INL-funded project implemented by the International Organization
for Migration which began in 2005. During the $450,000 project
IOM renovated an existing building on the border guard base in
central Khorog to serve as a regional training facility. The
training center has a dormitory for 24, laundry, dining room,
and a small gym and library providing a self-contained location
for students from the Gorno-Badakshan area of eastern
Tajikistan. By the end of 2008, in addition to renovating the
structure, IOM and the Border Guards had trained 210 employees
of border check-points. For 2009, IOM plans to teach 24
students each into four three month-long courses. The
instructors teach conscripts and warrant officers
(praporshchiki) checkpoint operations, fraudulent document
detection, migration legislation, English and Persian languages,
and computer skills.




6. INL Dushanbe anticipates no logistical problems co-locating
the Afghans at the training center. The next steps are for the
Government of Tajikistan to contact counterparts in the Afghan
government to make the necessary invitations for training border
guards and drug agents.




7. Gafarov spoke about the utility of including the agents of

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the Tajik Drug Control Agency and Afghan counterparts into the
joint training regime. On the margins of the October 2007
Dushanbe Border Security Conference Drug Control Agency Director
Rustam Nazarov told INL Officer that he agreed to joint training
drug agent training with Afghan colleagues.




8. Comment: Because the Khorog Training Center is already
operational we expect to be able to move forward quickly, or at
least as quickly as the conversation between the Tajik and
Afghan governments. Dushanbe will work with Kabul colleagues to
facilitate the dialogue. End comment.
JACOBSON