VZCZCXRO1868
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDF RUEHIK RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ
RUEHPW RUEHROV RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHAH #0130/01 0260634
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 260634Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY ASHGABAT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0139
INFO RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHAK/AMEMBASSY ANKARA 3293
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 1109
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 0979
RUEHIT/AMCONSUL ISTANBUL 1548
RUEABND/DEA HQS WASHINGTON DC
RUEHUNV/USMISSION UNVIE VIENNA 0040
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE 2145
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK 0684

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASHGABAT 000130 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN, INL 
DUSHANBE FOR DEA 
MOSCOW FOR DEA 
ISLAMABAD FOR DEA 
ANKARA FOR DEA 
AID/W FOR EE/EA (BOB WALLIN) 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL SNAR IR TX
SUBJECT:  TURKMENISTAN:  INTERNATIONAL EXPERTS DISCUSS 
COUNTERING NARCOTICS 
 
REF: A. 07 ASHGABAT 1041 
     ¶B. ASHGABAT 0122 
     ¶C. 07 ASHGABAT 1352 
     ¶D. 07 ASHGABAT 1344 
 
¶1.  (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  Over dinner on January 9, United Nations 
Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Antonio 
Maria Costa told Ashgabat-based law enforcement donor 
community members that his meeting with President 
Berdimuhamedov on January 9 had gone well and that the 
president had seemed genuinely concerned about Turkmenistan's 
narcotics problem.  Berdimuhamedov had welcomed UNODC's 
project proposals and had agreed to establish a State 
Counternarcotics Agency.  Donors agreed that high-level 
interest in combatting narcotics trafficking is increasing, 
but also concurred that a number of problems remain, 
including a lack of reliable statistics and reluctance among 
some officials to acknowledge the seriousness of 
Turkmenistan's drug problem.  END SUMMARY. 
 
ANTONIO MARIA COSTA MEETS WITH BERDIMUHAMEDOV 
 
¶3.  (SBU) United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 
Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa visited Turkmenistan 
January 9-10 with Jean-Luc Lemahieu, Chief of UNODC's Europe 
and West/Central Asia Operations.  UNODC's Turkmenistan 
office reported that in a January 9 meeting with President 
Berdimuhamedov, Costa and Lemahieu laid out a number of 
project ideas that the president welcomed "in principle," and 
the two sides agreed to work out the details. 
 
ELABORATION OF UNODC'S PROPOSALS 
 
¶4.  (SBU) Key UNODC proposals included the Caspian Sea 
Initiative, assistance and guidance for the establishment of 
a drug control agency in Turkmenistan, and the Turkmenistan 
Border Initiative.  The Caspian Sea Initiative aims to share 
intelligence and analysis of narcotics trafficking in the 
Caspian Sea region between a Coordination Analysis Unit in 
UNODC's Ashgabat office with analysts in Tehran, Tashkent, 
Moscow, Kabul, and Islamabad (Ref. A).  Costa urged the 
president to establish a State Counternarcotics Agency and 
reported later that Berdimuhamedov did not blink at the 
suggestion the Agency would cost $15 million to fund.  (NOTE: 
 As reported Ref. B, the president signed a decree 
establishing a new State Agency for Combating Narcotics on 
January 18, and allocated $14.8 million to fund it.  END 
NOTE.)  Through the Turkmenistan Border Initiative, UNODC 
will work toward increasing the border control agencies' 
enforcement capacities along Turkmenistan's borders with Iran 
and Afghanistan. 
 
MORE INSIGHT FROM THE DONORS' DINNER 
 
¶5.  (SBU) Costa told a group of representatives from donor 
countries and international organizations on January 10 that 
Berdimuhamedov is completely focused on and committed to 
fighting drugs.  Turkish DCM Tolga Orkun noted Turkey is 
seeking to assist Turkmenistan's counternarcotics efforts by 
providing training (Ref. C).  Costa replied that Turkmenistan 
is "demanding training," and said he does not see a desire by 
Turkmenistan to hide its need for such training.  UN Resident 
Coordinator Richard Young said Berdimuhamedov asked for 
assistance on law enforcement methodologies. 
 
ASHGABAT 00000130  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
COMBATTING AFGHAN OPIATES 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Costa noted the fact that Afghan officers are not 
allowed to talk with their counterparts across the border is 
a major impediment to Turkmen-Afghan coordination.  According 
to Costa, dialogue takes place only at the highest levels, 
and only once a year.  Lemahieu urged the OSCE to consider 
coordinating donor funding, and requested that donors take 
advantage of UNODC's donors' database on a more consistent 
basis to coordinate technical assistance. 
 
¶7.  (SBU) Lemahieu noted that Afghanistan's drugs are now 
reaching East Africa.  To combat the traffic of Afghan 
opiates, UNODC unveiled a "Rainbow Strategy" at the Paris 
Pact meeting in December 2007.  The strategy is based on five 
goals and measures:  increase the number of opium-free 
provinces in Afghanistan, strengthen cross-border 
counternarcotics cooperation among Afghanistan's neighbors, 
secure Central Asia's borders through intelligence 
cooperation and border management, reduce smuggling of 
precursor chemicals into Afghanistan, and improve security 
around the Caspian Sea. 
 
HIGH-LEVEL PARTICIPATION INCREASES IN UNODC EXPERT ROUNDTABLES 
 
¶8.  (SBU) Putting in a plug for UNODC's Expert Roundtables, 
Lemahieu said that participation is increasing both because 
of the expert level of substantive conversations and because 
CENTCOM can pay for high-level participants to attend when 
the Paris Pact organization cannot.  He said it is a good 
sign that both Iran and Turkmenistan -- two countries central 
to narcotics trafficking -- are sending high-level 
participants to the meetings.  In the future, UNODC aims to 
increase the roundtables' effectiveness by switching from a 
focus on "targets" (goals) to "action plans," (concrete 
activities). 
 
EU-TACIS RECOMMENDS A PREVENTATIVE STRATEGY 
 
¶9.  (SBU) EU-Tacis Advisor Michael Wilson stated that the 
economics of narcotics production is simple and lucrative: 
although the price is not increasing, crop yields are 
growing.  Wilson recommended that donors use a preventative 
strategy to tackle the narcotics problem, adding that 
although prevention is more expensive, it is an investment in 
a country's development. 
 
POSSIBLE STOCKPILING OF DRUGS TO CONTROL PRICES 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Costa said that he does not agree with the 
strategy of giving farmers price subsidies for "good" (i.e., 
food and cotton) crops.  According to Costa, the World Bank 
wants to implement a wheat quality improvement project which 
would include components such as building silos and improving 
seed quality.  Costa mused that somewhere, some people are 
stockpiling drug crop yields in order to control prices.  It 
is unlikely that farmers are stockpiling, because they can't 
afford to sit on their crops -- they need the cash flow and 
therefore sell immediately.  For that reason, experts suspect 
that the stockpilers are probably traders.  The Taliban is 
also likely involved in stockpiling, perhaps indirectly 
through sympathetic warlords. 
 
INCREASED DRUG PURITY DANGEROUS TO ABUSERS 
 
 
ASHGABAT 00000130  003 OF 003 
 
 
¶11.  (SBU) Lemahieu remarked that drug prices remain stable 
worldwide, but purity has significantly increased, putting 
users at huge risk and resulting in a huge increase in 
overdoses.  Purity of drugs sold in Europe has risen on 
average from 24 percent to 78 percent. 
 
¶12.  (SBU) COMMENT:  Narcotics continues to be an area where 
the Government of Turkmenistan is willing to collaborate with 
neighbors and donors.  Overall, this group felt positive 
about the direction in which Turkmenistan's counternarcotics 
effort is headed, but other issues remain, including the lack 
of reliable statistics and the government's reluctance to 
explicitly admit the existence of serious problems.  END 
COMMENT. 
HOAGLAND