VZCZCXRO5898
PP RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #0967/01 1771134
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 261134Z JUN 07
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0542
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC
RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DC
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 2157
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 2170
RUEHPW/AMCONSUL PESHAWAR 0027
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 2134
RUEHC/USAID WASHDC
RUEHRC/USDA FAS WASHDC
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 2325

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 000967 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL EAID ECON EAGR ENRG TI UZ
SUBJECT: PENJIKENT, TAJIKISTAN: ISOLATED BY REGIONAL BUREAUCRACY AND 
GEOGRAPHY, BUT STILL VIBRANT 
 
 
DUSHANBE 00000967  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  Summary: A June 20-22 trip to Penjikent and Aini districts 
in western Tajikistan illuminated how bilateral problems with 
Uzbekistan strangle the economy and trade for Tajik districts in 
the Zarafshan valley.  In Penjikent city, officials and citizens 
expressed support for President Rahmon, but noted that every 
family relies on remittances from Russia to make ends meet.  In 
addition, the closed border means that Tajik agricultural 
products cannot access railways and markets in Samarkand, 
Uzbekistan, only 60 kilometers to the west, but must instead be 
transported over high mountain passes and terrible roads to 
Dushanbe or Khujand.  U.S.-funded assistance projects have 
drastically reduced malnutrition rates in remote mountain 
villages by training village health committees and workers, but 
some communities remain snowed in four to five months each year, 
accessible only by donkey or foot, with no health care or fresh 
food.  End Summary. 
 
SANDWICHED BETWEEN A ROCK ~ AND MORE ROCKS 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
-------------------- 
 
¶2.  The wide valley of Penjikent district lies between two 
craggy mountain ranges, jutting into Uzbekistan.  In the Soviet 
days, and up until the Uzbeks closed the border in 1998, people 
in Penjikent and the greater Zarafshan river valley looked to 
Samarkand to export their produce and tobacco, and used the 
Samarkand rail connections for imports and exports.  The Uzbek 
border has now become a major obstacle to travel and trade. 
Only residents of Penjikent city and the areas within 50 km of 
the border can cross for up to five days without a visa. 
Penjikent shops displayed some Uzbek goods-Coca Cola, juice, 
bottled water, chocolate and ice cream, but the lack of customs 
services at the border means that commerce is restricted to 
suitcase traders and smugglers.  Tajik officials doubt that the 
Uzbek government will lift the bureaucratic restrictions on 
border crossings any time in the near future. 
 
¶3.  Penjikent district has little industry - a single cannery, a 
tobacco factory and a British-owned gold mine (that the Chinese 
are considering buying out) -- and the economy relies on 
tobacco, potatoes, rice, wheat, grapes, orchards and vegetable 
plots.  Archeologists have been excavating the ancient ruins 
outside of Penjikent for many years and hope to turn them into a 
tourist attraction, along with the burial ground of the tenth 
century Tajik poet Rudaki.  Many Tajik journalists, writers and 
poets hail from Penjikent and a governmental official promised 
PolOff that her visit to the inspirational region would "open 
her talents for poetry."  Tourism, like commerce, was limited by 
the border although hikers sometimes come from Samarkand through 
special tour companies to trek the through the famed Fan 
mountains to Dushanbe. (Comment: After two jostling days in the 
car, PolOff would have preferred to return to Dushanbe on foot. 
End Comment.) 
 
¶4.  PolOffs endured almost nine hours of bone-jarring roads and 
the 3500 meter Anzob pass to reach Penjikent June 20, a trip 
that as late as 1994 took less than six hours.  Deputy District 
Chairman Zafarjon Atoev and Hakimboy Makhkamov were upbeat about 
Penjikent's prospects, but noted that labor remittances from 
Russia keep families in the district going.  Despite the closed 
border and open bilateral tension over energy, the district 
enjoyed a steady supply of electricity and gas from Uzbekistan 
last winter, with several hours in the mornings and evenings 
(even when other parts of Tajikistan were completely dark). 
Geography shielded the Zarafshan valley from the Tajik civil war 
- a strategically destroyed bridge literally cut the valley off 
from the fighting in the south and residents reported no 
fallout. 
 
¶5.  Although farmers in Penjikent carry none of the debt 
burdening cotton growers in the south, the farmers working the 
district's 20,000 hectares face the challenges of poor 
transportation and a lack of market access.  Makhkamov claimed 
Penjikent wine once took a gold medal at a Moscow competition. 
(Comment: California wines have nothing to fear should Tajik 
wines hit the world market.  Vinegar producers, beware.  End 
Comment.)  Penjikent's biggest liability is the poor condition 
of the roads linking north and south -- something officials 
hoped will be remedied after the Chinese finish reconstructing 
the Dushanbe-Khujand road in 2009.  Two government officials 
(and alumni of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Cochran 
Fellowship Program) echoed Makhkamov's comments about 
 
DUSHANBE 00000967  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
Penjikent's agricultural potential, noting the lack of food 
processing facilities and transportation routes limited the 
farmers' ability to grow anything other than potatoes and 
tobacco as significant cash crops. 
 
IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, AMERICA FIGHTING MALNUTRITION 
--------------------------------------------- -------------- 
------------------------------ 
 
¶6.  Despite the abundance of produce and food, many remote parts 
of the district until recently had childhood malnutrition rates 
approaching 50 percent, due to disease and a lack of 
understanding about nutrition.  Working in 143 villages in 
Penjikent district and 61 in Aini district, the U.S.-funded 
non-governmental organization Save the Children has reduced 
those rates to eight percent or lower in many communities. 
Project managers took PolOffs two hours up into the Fan 
mountains, to see community health workers teaching young 
children about hygiene and nutrition, and to meet a group of 
young women, and their mothers-in-law, talking about breast 
feeding.  Save the Children's Gulchera Boboeva estimated that 
the five year, $1 million project had helped 36,000 children 
under five years old and  60,000 women of reproductive age. 
 
¶7.  Many mountain communities are completely cut off from the 
main roads once the snows fall in October.  The villages subsist 
on food grown in small, steep vegetable plots during the short 
summer season, and money sent from Russia.  Aside from the 
occasional old man, women populated the villages -- and without 
men to work the land, grandmothers cared for the children while 
the younger women farmed. Save the Children has targeted 
caregivers as well as mothers with its health messages, and also 
trained village health workers to help identify problems and get 
patients to medical care sooner rather than later. 
 
¶8.  Save the Children workers described an outstanding working 
relationship with local government officials and the central 
hospital, reporting no hassles or bureaucratic barriers to 
prevent them from conducting their work.  Boboeva noted 
wistfully that because the program is scheduled to end in 
September 2007, and no new funding has been identified, Save may 
cease its operations entirely.  She felt confident that elements 
of the program were sustainable, but noted that many communities 
needed continued monitoring and technical assistance to ensure 
that their inhabitants remained healthy. 
 
AINI AT THE CROSSROADS 
----------------------------------------- 
 
¶9.  To the east of Penjikent, Aini district sits at Tajikistan's 
northern crossroads, equidistant from Dushanbe and Khujand -- 
but much closer to Samarkand than to either Tajik city. 
District chairman Shodikul Bobojonov claims the district is 98 
percent mountains.  Like Penjikent, residents of Aini rely 
heavily on labor migrants in Russia to supplement the small 
family farms.  Several mining operations are located in the Aini 
mountains -- including the U.S. company COMSUP's antimony mine, 
and a coal deposit that Tajik officials hope to develop for a 
thermal power station.  However, Bobojonov criticized the idea 
of building a thermal power station, noting it would be bad for 
the district's air quality and environment.  "We have so much 
hydro-power potential," he said, that it doesn't make sense to 
exploit coal.  He observed that the Chinese road construction 
hadn't brought much economic benefit to the district, but 
predicted that once it was completed, there would be more 
commerce, and tourists.  Bobojonov also lamented the sad state 
of the district's snow removal equipment, noting most of the 
machinery was from the 1950s-1970s and not hydraulic.  Like 
Penjikent, Aini receives a limited but steady supply of 
electricity and gas from Uzbekistan through the winter. 
 
¶10. In addition to Save the Children's child survival project, a 
European Union-funded program through the organization German 
Agro Action targets rural villages eking out a living on the 
combined 2000 hectares of arable lands.  Project Manager Ira 
Pavlovski said they work with families -- many headed by women 
-- to improve the quality and quantity of foods grown.  The 
district lies too high to grow many crops or fruits, but 
potatoes have proven a successful cash crop -- these are also 
limited by the transportation problems on the bumpy road. 
Pavlovski underscored the excellent cooperation she enjoys with 
the district government for their projects, and commented that 
 
DUSHANBE 00000967  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
the government and organizations working in the districts had 
recently held a coordination meeting to ensure better 
cooperation and avoid duplication of efforts. 
 
¶11.  Comment:  Unlike other parts of Tajikistan, where 
electricity and unemployment top the lists of problems for the 
citizens and government, Penjikent and Aini seem well-supplied 
with gas and light from Uzbekistan, even as Uzbek politics 
prevents their districts from reaching bigger markets and 
trading freely.  The openness and cooperation non-governmental 
organizations enjoy with local authorities demonstrates that 
while government officials in Dushanbe might view many 
non-governmental organizations as suspect, at the local 
government level, a stronger attitude of cooperation has led to 
some serious success.  End Comment. 
JACOBSON