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RR RUEHLN RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #1255/01 2471104
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041104Z SEP 07
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0886
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 0184
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEHBUL/AMEMBASSY KABUL 2247
RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 2236
RUEHPW/AMCONSUL PESHAWAR 0053
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RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 2030
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUEHDBU/AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE 2746

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 001255 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR SCA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL ECON EAID ECIN ELTN TI AF
SUBJECT: TAJIK-AFGHAN BRIDGE OPENS IN STYLE 
 
REF: DUSHANBE 1253 
 
DUSHANBE 00001255  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1.  (U) On August 26, after 19 months of construction led by the 
Afghan Engineering Division of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 
$37 million in U.S. funding, 19,100 cubic meters of concrete, 
and countless demarches and interventions by the Embassy to 
secure building materials and licenses, Tajik President Emomali 
Rahmon, Afghan President Hamid Karzai, and U.S. Secretary of 
Commerce Carlos Gutierrez officially opened the new bridge 
linking Nizhniy Pyanj, Tajikistan and Sher Khan Bander, 
Afghanistan.  The 673 meter span across the Pyanj River is 
designed to handle 1000 trucks a day and withstand the largest 
floods and strongest earthquakes known to occur in this 
seismically active region. 
 
A Little bit of Vision... 
 
============= 
 
¶2.  (U) Each of the three principals at the opening recognized 
the historic importance of this bridge, linking not just 
Tajikistan and Afghanistan, but Central and South Asia.  Both 
Karzai and Rahmon spoke about their nations' historic role as 
"places in between" the great trading empires and evoked the 
image of the Great Silk Road to describe their future role in a 
revived transcontinental trade route, criss-crossed by caravans 
of Kamaz trucks instead of camels.  Such trade links had been 
all but severed for centuries during the "Great Game" and 
subsequent Soviet domination of Central Asia.  The bridge almost 
halves the distance from Dushanbe to a seaport.  A renovated 
spur road links Sher Khan Bander to Kunduz and to Afghanistan's 
quickly developing network of newly constructed roads.  On the 
Tajik side, the Japanese government has already initiated road 
repairs from the bridge north to Qurghon-Teppa, Chinese loans 
and Asian Development Bank grants are financing construction of 
roads north from Dushanbe, and Iran continues work on a tunnel 
through the Anzob pass. 
 
... and a Big Dose of Reality 
 
================== 
 
¶3.  (U) Lofty aspirations notwithstanding, the three principals 
also recognized the daunting tasks remaining to make the new 
Silk Road a reality.  President Rahmon's speech at the ribbon 
cutting called for joint efforts by Tajikistan, Afghanistan and 
the international community to ensure the bridge will not be 
used for evil purposes, such as drug trafficking or movement of 
terrorists, and President Karzai noted that much work remains in 
order to develop the full potential of the bridge.  Secretary 
Gutierrez was more specific, echoing points he raised in private 
meetings with the Tajik and Afghan leaders: customs officials 
and border guards from the two sides need to collaborate more 
closely.  Press covering the event also raised the specter of a 
poorly managed bridge facilitating illicit trade in Afghan 
narcotics. 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Tajik and Afghan officials recognize this danger too, 
and in the weeks leading up to the opening ceremony, we observed 
a few promising signs that the Tajiks might overcome their 
predisposition not to deal with their Afghan counterparts. 
Embassy staff were instrumental in prodding local border 
officials on either side of the still incomplete bridge to sit 
down together and begin discussing standard operating procedures 
for the bridge.  A week prior to the ceremony during a 
reconnaissance trip to the bridge, the Ambassador met with the 
Tajik Governor of Khatlon and the Afghan Governor of Kunduz 
literally at the center of the 673-meter span, where the 
governors informed her that they would be ready to operate on 
the Monday following the ceremony, allowing 50 cars to pass in 
either direction.  Comment: This is a small start, but not 
unreasonable given the fact that the border facilities on either 
side of the bridge are still several weeks from completion.  We 
plan to use President Rahmon's "promise" to cooperate with the 
Afghans to press the Tajik border guards to conduct joint 
training programs with their neighbors to the south, and to 
obtain better treatment from Tajik consuls for Afghan 
businessmen applying for visas.  End comment. 
 
What's in a Name? 
 
 
DUSHANBE 00001255  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
=============== 
 
¶5.  (SBU) After two years of work on the bridge and a gala 
opening ceremony, there is still no consensus on what to call 
the bridge.  People on the Tajik side of the river tend to refer 
to it as the Nizhniy Pyanj bridge (or Panji Payon in Tajiki) 
after the small village nearest the Tajik bridgehead.  People on 
the Afghan side usually refer to it as the Sher Khan Bander 
bridge for similar reasons.  In his opening speech, President 
Rahmon settled on the name "Friendship Bridge" (Puli Dusti), 
which resonates well with Tajiks who are used to such Soviet-era 
formulations and because the larger town an hour from the bridge 
is called Dusti (friendship).  As he read out his speech, 
however, the large banner unfurled below the podium read simply 
"Puli Panji Payon" (Nizhniy Pyanj Bridge).  Nor did President 
Karzai take up Rahmon's suggested moniker, although he said the 
bridge symbolized the connections and friendship between the 
Afghan and Tajik people.  Karzai may also be more sensitive to 
the fact that a different bridge downstream, built by the 
Soviets at Termez, Uzbekistan was named the "Friendship Bridge" 
and was later used to invade Afghanistan.  In addition, the name 
"Tajik-Afghan Friendship Bridge" is already in use elsewhere 
(and has its own Wikipedia entry), referring to one of the 
smaller bridges across the Pyanj built by the Aga Khan 
Development Network. 
 
¶6.  (U) Naming the river is also a bit confusing.  The Pyanj (a 
Russianized variant of the Persian Panj) is the main tributary 
to the Amu Darya.  Most maps use the label Amu Darya once the 
Pyanj meets the Vakhsh River, just downstream from the new 
bridge and before it flows to Uzbekistan.  Some Afghans tend to 
include the entire Pyanj as part of the Amu Darya.  Since 
Alexander's armies came this way, Westerners have called the 
river the Oxus.  And some ancient texts and many current 
residents still refer to it as the Jayhun -- one of the four 
rivers which watered the Garden of Eden. 
 
Of Palaces, Palates, and Pilates 
 
========================= 
 
¶7.  (SBU) President Rahmon relished his role as host of the 
bridge opening ceremonies.  He presided over lavish multi-course 
meals, including a dinner at a new presidential "dacha" complex 
which is being expanded to accommodate the Commonwealth of 
Independent States summit in October.  The new dacha overlooks 
the Palace of the Nation also in the last stages of construction 
-- by the same Italian contractor who built the bridge -- and 
reputed to cost close to $90 million so far.  The grandeur 
continued after the dinner with a presidentially guided tour of 
the government dacha compound where the Afghan and American 
delegations spent the night.  The dacha compound continues to 
grow, with whole neighborhoods displaced to make room for 
additional conference halls and guest houses.  The tour included 
a look inside the new sports complex built just for Rahmon.  It 
includes an indoor tennis court, Olympic sized pool, multiple 
work-out rooms, sauna complex, and billiard hall, where Karzai 
successfully tried his hand at Rahmon's favorite game.  The 
crowning achievement of the complex is an imposing domed edifice 
with five stories and room after room of over-the-top opulence. 
The building can house four heads of state at the same time. 
Standing on the roof and looking out at the lights of the city 
(note: much of the city was without lights for five months last 
winter due to electricity shortages), Secretary of Commerce 
Gutierrez asked the Ambassador what she was thinking.  The 
Ambassador replied that she was thinking about the half of the 
Tajik population living below the poverty line. 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Rahmon appears to be enjoying the trappings of royalty 
more and more.  After a beautiful recitation of Persian poetry 
set to music at the dinner in Dushanbe, Rahmon summoned his 
favorite singer to the bridge opening ceremony the next day, 
where he displaced some of the locally arranged musical groups 
and sang for almost 10 minutes about the virtues of the 
president.  (Rahmon's other favorite singer also came to the 
bridge where she delivered a kitschy but climate-appropriate 
rendition of Gershwin's Summertime in accented English.)  Rahmon 
is too young and healthy to stir speculation about an heir, but 
we did spot his young son accompanying him down the bridge 
toward the ribbon cutting.  Slightly more troubling, official 
 
DUSHANBE 00001255  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
state-owned Tajik press covering the event omitted the 
information about the bridge being funded by the United States. 
The credit all goes to Rahmon. 
 
¶9.  (SBU) Despite their differences in style, Rahmon genuinely 
enjoyed his time with Karzai.  Rahmon personally drove Karzai 40 
minutes outside Dushanbe to visit the historic sites of Hissor 
and enjoy a picnic at the central bank chief's private dacha. 
Later Rahmon joked to the American delegation that because of 
the Afghans' presence, we would have to settle for a 
"traditional cup of tea" at the dinner -- meaning we would have 
to keep the vodka hidden in tea-cups.  An hour later in the 
Tajik-Afghan-U.S. trilateral, Rahmon repeated the joke to Karzai 
himself, who decided to interpret it literally.  At one point 
during the dinner, Rahmon's foreign policy advisor, Erkin 
Rahmatulloev, poured some vodka into Afghan Foreign Minster 
Spanta's juice, but overall surprisingly little vodka was 
consumed.  Perhaps the early morning start to the bridge was on 
everyone's mind. 
JACOBSON