VZCZCXRO1379
RR RUEHDBU
DE RUEHNT #0990 1411117
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
R 211117Z MAY 07
FM AMEMBASSY TASHKENT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7886
INFO RUEHAH/AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT 3045
RUEHTA/AMEMBASSY ASTANA 9175
RUEHRL/AMEMBASSY BERLIN 1165
RUEHEK/AMEMBASSY BISHKEK 3651
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 3515
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 1873
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0862
RUEHMO/AMEMBASSY MOSCOW 7077
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME 0284
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 0050

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000990 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR SCA/CEN AND INL 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/21/2017 
TAGS: SNAR PREL ZK
SUBJECT: UZBEKS AND AFGHANS SPAR OVER COUNTERNARCOTICS 
 
Classified By: CDA Brad Hanson for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
¶1. (C) The Italian Ambassador convened the semi-annual 
meeting of the Mini-Dublin Group for Uzbekistan and 
Tajikistan May 10 by providing an overview of the narcotics 
situation in Central Asia and Afghanistan, which he called "a 
disaster."  Talk is nice, he said, but more action is needed. 
 Addressing United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 
Regional Representative James Callahan, the Ambassador said 
that Italy is, in particular, "fed up" with excuses for why 
the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination 
Center (CARICC) is not yet operational.  Continuing delays 
are unacceptable, he said, and urged that UNODC approach 
donors for help if it is unable to resolve problems caused by 
CARICC-member states lack of political will.  (Comment: Then 
DCM made the same point to Callahan on December 28.  End 
comment.) 
 
¶2. (C) Kamol Dusmetov, Chief of Uzbekistan's National Center 
for Drug Control, attributed the region's narcotics problems 
to the situation in Afghanistan.  The problem, he said, is 
that the Afghan government and international community is not 
doing enough to establish alternative livelihood programs. 
This statement engendered a strong response from the Afghan 
Ambassador, who said that the real problem is with terrorist 
and criminal groups which benefit from continued drug 
production and that these groups must be dealt with before 
alternative livelihood programs will succeed.  It would be 
useful, the Ambassador said, if Afghanistan's neighbors would 
do more than just criticize the country's counternarcotics 
efforts, perhaps by increasing their efforts to control the 
flow of precursor chemicals into Afghanistan.  Dusmetov 
responded that Uzbekistan cannot be expected to control the 
flow of drugs from, and precursors to, Afghanistan without 
much more assistance from donors.  Dusmetov had no response 
to the Italian Ambassador's suggestion that perhaps this 
would not be such a problem if Uzbekistan would devote some 
of the resources to narcotics and precursor control that it 
now uses to prevent foreign vehicles and wine from entering 
the country. 
 
¶3. (C) Comment: The Italian Ambassador's suggestion aside, 
participants were noticeably less critical of the Uzbeks than 
in previous meetings.  Post attributes this more to 
Dusmetov's attendance than to any major improvement in 
Uzbekistan's cooperation with the international community on 
narcotics issues.  Dusmetov's attendance at the meeting marks 
the first time that the Government of Uzbekistan has 
participated in the Mini-Dublin Group in at least the past 
two years.  Unfortunately, he brought little to the meeting 
beyond the usual complaints that the international community 
is not doing enough to fight drugs in Afghanistan or 
providing enough assistance to Uzbekistan. 
 
¶4. (C) Comment, continued: Post agrees with the Italian 
Ambassador that it is past time for CARICC to become 
operational.  According to UNODC, the delays have been caused 
mostly by Kazkahstan not having turned the building where 
CARICC is to be housed over to the UN.  Additionally, some 
member countries, including Russia, have not yet signed the 
documents establishing CARICC, although the Russian 
representative said this would happen "soon."  In Post's 
view, the time is approaching when Washington and other 
donors may want to consider engaging directly with the 
governments in question in an attempt to stiffen what appears 
to be flagging political will to see CARICC in operation. 
HANSON