TAJIKISTAN: JUNE 2009 LAW ENFORCEMENT DEVELOPMENTS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 DUSHANBE 000900 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR SCA/CEN (PRESCOTT) INL/AAE (BUHLER) JUSTICE FOR (DUCOT AND NEWCOMBE) DEFENSE FOR OSD/P E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV SNAR KCRM KJUS TI SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: JUNE 2009 LAW ENFORCEMENT DEVELOPMENTS DUSHANBE 00000900 001.2 OF 004 ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: Tajik border guard wounded and Afghan drug trafficker killed in a skirmish on the border in the southern Khatlon province. Counter Narcotics Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs seized 101 kilos of heroin in Sugd. Traffic Police Officers seized 50 kilos of heroin in a car. Ministry of Internal Affairs seized 25 kilos of opiates in two separate operations in Shurabad and Chkalovsk. Police Officers seized 28 kilos of narcotics in Farkhor district. Ministry of Internal Affairs discovered large arms cache in Rudaki district. Drug Control Agency burns 635 kilos of drugs. Tajikistan marks International days against drug abuse and illicit trafficking. Drug Control Agency marks its tenth anniversary. President Rahmon appoints a Director of the National Center for Legislation. U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan launches ground breaking ceremony of the Border Guards Training Academy in Dushanbe. Ex-Minister of Internal Affairs commits suicide. End summary. DRUG SEIZURES ¶2. (U) On June 2 during a skirmish on the border in the southern Khatlon province one Tajik border guard was wounded and one Afghan drug trafficker was killed. Khoushnoud Rahmatulloyev, a spokesman for the Main Department of Border Guards Forces within the State Committee on National Security, said that border guards from the Pyanj border unit on a routine patrol spotted and tried to detain a group of armed persons who were illegally crossing the border river. Border guards fired when the trespassers tried to flee. Border guards killed one trespasser and others escaped. One Tajik border guard was wounded in the skirmish and taken to the hospital. Border guards seized more than 10 kilograms of raw opium and one Makarov pistol at the scene of clash. According to Rahmatulloyev the traffickers are members of a ring led by Afghan national Qori valadi Hoshim and this group has illegally crossed the border several times. ¶3. (U) On June 16 Counter Narcotics officers in Sugd seized more than 100 kilograms of heroin. A source at the Sugd Counter Narcotics Department received anonymous phone call at around 1:30 a.m. that two persons were trying to transport a large amount of narcotics from the Qistaquz jamoat in the Bobojon Gafurov district to neighboring Kyrgyzstan. When the officers tried to detain the drug traffickers, the traffickers abandoned the drugs and escaped. Counter Narcotics officers seized a bicycle and four bags with 100 packages containing 101 kilograms of heroin. ¶4. (U) On June 20 Traffic police Officers intercepted a large amount of heroin being transported from Dushanbe to Sugd province. The traffic police officers found 50 kilograms of heroin while searching a Toyota Avensis vehicle belonging to a Dushanbe resident at the Chorbogh traffic police checkpoint in the Varzob district of Dushanbe. Traffic police arrested the driver and his passenger on suspicion of drug trafficking. ¶5. (SBU) On June 3 Ministry of Internal Affairs officers seized more than 25 kilograms of narcotics in two separate operations. Police officers arrested Bobosho Sharipov, a resident of Khatlon's Shurabad district. Police Officers seized almost 16 kilograms of raw opium from him. The same day, police officers arrested Abduqahhor Mavlonov, a resident of the northern city of Chkalovsk, on suspicion of drug trafficking. Police officers confiscated about 10 kilograms of heroin from him. ¶6. (U) On June 12 police officers carried out an operation in the village of Margzor in Khatlon's Farkhor district, arresting a local resident and confiscating 28 kilograms of narcotics, including 24 kilograms of marijuana; the remaining four DUSHANBE 00000900 002.2 OF 004 kilograms were heroin and raw opium. WEAPONS SEIZURES ¶7. (U) On June 16 Ministry of Internal Affairs officers discovered a large arms cache in Rudaki district near the village of Tojikobod in the Zaynobod jamoat. Ministry of Internal Affairs officers seized a Star-Sal-22 pistol (phonetically spelled),Sat pistol, Makarov pistol, a western type submachine gun with two magazines, a Winchester-Cobra carbine, two Kalashnikov assault rifles, a hunting gun, eight F-1 hand grenades, three RGD-5 hand grenades and 446 bullets of different caliber. ¶8. (U) On June 13 Ministry of Internal Affairs officers discovered an arms cache reputedly from the 1990's civil war, containing a Kalashnikov submachine gun and 1,133 bullets of different caliber at a apartment building construction site on Huvaidulloev Street in Dushanbe. DRUGS BURNED ¶9. (U) On June 26 the Drug Control Agency and the Counter-Narcotics Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs burned 635 kilograms of drugs at the Tajiktekstilmash plant in Dushanbe. The total included 28 kilograms of heroin and the remainder was raw opium and cannabis drugs. Tajik law enforcement authorities confiscated the drugs during 2008-2009. Representatives from the courts, prosecutor's offices and press attended the burning, timed to coincide with the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. DRUG DEMAND REDUCTION ¶10. (U) On June 26 Drug Control Agency held drug demand reduction events in five summer camps in the Varzob district. The Agency organized various sports activities and psychological training to give 250 children an opportunity to realize their creative abilities. The events were dedicated to the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. The main objective of the events was to emphasize not leaving children alone with their problems during summer holidays and to interest children in legal activities. The DCA held similar events in all regions of the country. (Note: By resolution 42/112 on December 7 1987, the General Assembly of the Tajik SSR agreed to observe June 26 as the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking as an expression of the Republic's determination to strengthen action and cooperation to combat drug abuse. This resolution recommended further action with regard to the report and conclusions of the 1987 International Conference on Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking. End note.) INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS ¶11. (U) On May 30 the Drug Control Agency held a ceremonial meeting dedicated to the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the Drug Control Agency under the President of Tajikistan. President Emomali Rahmon as well as heads of counternarcotics agencies of Central Asia's states, Azerbaijan and Russia and senior representatives of Tajik law enforcement agencies and international originations active in Tajikistan attended the meeting. DUSHANBE 00000900 003.2 OF 004 ¶12. (U) Background: President Rahmon decreed the establishment of the Drug Control Agency (DCA) was established on June 1, 1999 in accordance with an agreement signed by the Government of Tajikistan and the UN Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC). Over the past decade, the DCA alone and in cooperation with other law enforcement authorities of the CIS states and Afghanistan seized about 20,000 kilograms of narcotics, including more than 9,000 kilograms seized inside Tajikistan. The Drug Control Agency detected 1,405 drug-related crimes and broke up 240 drug rings during this period. The Drug Control Agency opened 824 criminal cases against 1,223 persons to courts and destroyed more than 10,000 kilograms of narcotics, including, 3, 900 kilograms of heroin over the past decade. PERSONNEL CHANGES ¶13. (U) On June 4 President Rahmon by his decree relieved Sherkhon Salimzoda of his post of Director of the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption, and appointed him as a State Adviser to the President for Legal Matters and President's Representative to Parliament, replacing Zarif Alizoda. President Rahmon recently appointed Zarif Alizoda the Human Rights Ombudsman of Tajikistan; appointed Rustam Mengliyev the First Deputy Justice Minister to the Deputy Head of President's Executive Office; appointed Mahmad Rahimov, Deputy of Majlisi Namoyandagon (Tajikistan's lower chamber of parliament) to Director of the National Center for Legislation under the President of Tajikistan; Fattoh Saidov, former chief of the Dushanbe police department, appointed to head of the Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption. In the meantime, the Minister of Interior appointed Sherali Sabzov the chief of the Organized Crime Department to Chief of the Dushanbe Police Department. BORDER GUARD ACADEMY PROJECT LAUNCHED ¶14. (U) On June 10 the Head of the Border Guards General Sherali Mirzo, U.S. Ambassador in Tajikistan Tracey Jacobson, and Turkish Ambassador in Tajikistan Mir Akif Ayhan, participated in the ground breaking ceremony of the Border Guards Training Academy in Dushanbe ($2.5 million). This bilateral project by the Government of Republic of Tajikistan and INL is one of a series to assist the Tajik Border Guards to improve the educational facilities for border officers and support the security of Tajikistan. The project will improve the study and dormitory facilities of cadets studying at the Academy. The construction will be completed by February 2010. The contractor for construction work is Bozdemir Insaat ve Mehendisilik Ltd., a Turkish firm selected through an international tender. OTHER ¶15. (U) Ex-Minister of Internal Affairs Mamadnazar Solehov died in his house in Dushanbe on June 17 at around 8:00 p.m. Allegedly he shot himself. President Rahmon relieved Mamadnazar Solehov of his post of Minister of Interior in January this year. President Rahmon announced the sacking of Solehov at the annual session of the National Security Council in Dushanbe on January 29 and replaced him with Sugd province Police Chief Abdurahim Qahhorov. Mamadnazar Solehov had been repeatedly summoned to the Prosecutor General's Office for questioning over cases related to abuse of office, deliberate hiding of crimes by some police officers, and the murder of the special police officer Oleg Zakharchenko in February 2008. Mr. Solehov ignored the summons and did not appear. On June 17 the Prosecutor DUSHANBE 00000900 004.2 OF 004 General issued an arrest warrant for Mamadnazar Solehov, and he allegedly killed himself rather than be arrested. COMMENT ¶16. (SBU) The intensity of drug trafficking and interdiction efforts continues and demands increased efforts and continued improvements in the capacity of Tajik border services to raise them to international standards. We wait to see the impact of the summer counter-narcotics campaigns on annual seizure rates. QUAST