VZCZCXRO5963
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHNEH RUEHPW RUEHSK RUEHVK
RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #1514/01 3500619
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 150619Z DEC 08
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1255
INFO RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE VIENNA AU
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0232
RUCNCLS/SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 0249
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEABND/DEA HQ WASHINGTON DC
RUEAWJA/DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 DUSHANBE 001514 
 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR SCA/CEN (HUSHEK) 
INL/AAE (BUHLER) 
JUSTICE FOR (DUCOT AND NEWCOMBE) 
DEFENSE FOR OSD/P 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: SNAR KCRM KJUS PGOV PREL RF TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: NARCOTICS, LAW ENFORCEMENT, AND JUSTICE SECTOR 
OCTOBER-NOVEMBER UPDATE 
 
REF: Dushanbe 1379 
 
¶1. Summary: The November visit by SCA DAS Krol provided welcomed 
insights into U.S. plans for Central Asia.  EU and OSCE colleagues 
are still working to improve technical capacity for drug 
interdiction and Finland continues to stress strategic border 
management.  Tajik law enforcement agencies have seized drugs at 
increased rates over last year but have so far arrested only low 
level couriers.  INL's justice sector program is providing defense 
attorneys with access to legal information necessary to defend 
clients, help the Judicial Council initiate transparent professional 
selection and training of judges, and is preparing to provide 
numerous grants to improve access to justice, court monitoring, and 
other programs.  End summary. 
 
INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENTS 
 
¶2. President Rahmon proffered joint training for Tajik and Afghan 
law enforcement officers during his keynote speech at the late 
October ministerial conference on "Border Management and Drug 
Control in Central Asia".  While Pierre Morel, EU Special 
Representative for Central Asia, hailed the success of the 
conference as reported reftel, beyond Rahmon's remarks the 
conference has not yet yielded substantive results. 
 
¶3. DAS Krol's visit and November 11 speech, "Central Asia and 
Afghanistan: An American Perspective," on the heels of the U.S. 
election reassured academics, Tajik officials, and diplomats about 
the Obama administration.  We sensed collective relief from the 
audience when DAS Krol said that he did not anticipate any dramatic 
change in U.S. policy towards Afghanistan after January 21. 
Interlocutors are concerned that the U.S. will leave Afghanistan 
without stabilizing it, and that in turn would impact Tajikistan. 
 
¶4. The Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Center 
(CARICC) was formally established when deputies of the Majlisi 
Namoyandagon (TajikistanQs lower chamber of parliament) ratified the 
agreement on November 12.  Rustam Nazarov, Director of The Drug 
Control Agency, sponsored the legislation.  With Tajikistan's 
ratification, the Almaty-based Center can become fully operational. 
He noted that the Center's main goal was to promote cooperation 
among law enforcement agencies in the region to enhance 
counternarcotics activities.  The drug control chief said that 
CARICC member states would consider Afghanistan membership after the 
Center becomes fully operational.  The Center has liaison officers 
seconded from member states whose role is to ensure cooperation 
between CARICC and the law enforcement authorities in the respective 
countries.  To date, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan have 
posted liaison officers to the Center.  The center has established 
contacts with Interpol which plans to establish a liaison office at 
CARICC in the near future. 
 
MUTUAL COOPERATION 
 
¶5. On October 27 during bilateral consultations, Anne Holmlund, 
Finland's Minister of Interior, offered to provide financial 
assistance to Tajik border guards.  According to the Border Guards, 
and confirmed by Finnish sources, the two sides discussed smuggling 
narcotics via the Tajik-Afghan border, intensifying efforts to halt 
drug trafficking and illegal migration, and countering international 
Qdrug trafficking and illegal migration, and countering international 
terrorism and religious extremism. 
 
¶6. UNDP and EU-BOMCA conducted a one-month refresher training course 
for drug detecting dogs and Border Guard dog handlers in 
mid-November.  Kazakh experts from the National Security Committee 
of Kazakhstan conducted the training course for twelve 
drug-detecting dogs of the Tajik Border Force from border areas in 
Sughd, Khatlon and Gorno Badakhshan provinces.  The experts trained 
the dogs in Dushanbe at the Dog Training Center of the National Drug 
Control Agency (DCA). 
 
NOTABLE NARCOTICS AND WEAPONS SEIZURES 
 
¶7. The Drug Control Agency reported that Tajik law-enforcement 
authorities seized over five metric tons of narcotics in the first 
ten months of 2008.  This includes 1.5 tons of heroin, 1.7 tons of 
raw opium, and 2.0 tons of cannabis.  During the same period, 
foreign law enforcement officials detained 227 Tajik nationals, 
among them 17 women.  Officers detained 192 Tajiks in Russia, ten in 
 
DUSHANBE 00001514  002 OF 004 
 
 
Kazakhstan, ten in Uzbekistan, and six in Kyrgyzstan. 
 
¶8. (U) On October 3, the Border Guards, who are a directorate within 
the State Committee for National Security, reported a large drug 
haul of 204 kilograms in the Shuroabod area of Khatlon province on 
the Tajik-Afghan border.  The Border Guards were on routine patrol 
and spotted a group of armed persons who were illegally crossing the 
border river 
 
¶9. Drug trafficking is not limited to the area bordering 
Afghanistan.  Since the beginning of 2008, law officers in the 
former Soviet Union detained 42 residents of the northern Sughd 
province, including three women, for drug trafficking reported 
Muzaffar Boqiyev, First Deputy of the Sughd regional prosecutor's 
office.  Officials detained 26 Sogdians in Russia, three in 
Kazakhstan, ten in Uzbekistan, and three in Kyrgyzstan. 
 
¶10. Neither does age seem to be a limiting factor in drug 
trafficking.  According to the Sughd police, on October 22 officers 
in the Bobojonghafurov district seized over 24 kilograms of hashish 
from 72-year-old Khoujahasan Rahmonov, a resident of the city of 
Taboshar and his 37-year-old accomplice of Dushanbe, Jamila 
Vazirova. 
 
 
¶11. The Ministry of Internal Affairs continues to seize narcotics as 
well.  On October 28, officers of the Ministry's department for 
combating drug trafficking seized 6.5 kilograms of heroin from a 
37-year-old resident of Dushanbe, Rajabali Qurbonov. 
 
¶12. Foreigners are also arrested.  On November 8, an operation by 
officers from the Drug Control Agency led to the arrest of two 
Afghan drug traffickers in Dushanbe, 45-year old Nourullo valadi 
Abdullo and 21-year old Muhammad valadi Ghulommuhammad who had over 
a kilo of heroin.  Another operation resulted in the arrest of 
another Afghan national, 65-year old Muhammad Yoqoub valadi 
Abdulaziz, and the seizure of almost a kilo of heroin.  Criminal 
proceedings have been instituted against the Afghan 
narco-traffickers and an investigation is under way. 
 
¶13. Tajikistan's Customs Service is also interdicting narcotics. 
According to Custom's officials since the beginning of this year 
they have seized over eight kilos of narcotics at Nizhniy Pyanj 
border crossing point with Afghanistan. 
 
DRUG DEMAND REDUCTION 
 
¶14. On October 26, 2008 at the 5th International Sato Tecuo 
Karate-do Tournament, DCM Necia Quast handed out prizes to the 
karate champions and the winners of the QWhy Drugs Are BadQ essay 
competition.  INL Dushanbe sponsored the tournament as part of its 
effort to reduce drug consumption.  The project appeals to high 
school students in Dushanbe, Khujand and Khatlon to lead an active, 
healthy lifestyle by showing the successes of dedicated athletes. 
The message will be reinforced when karate champions speak at 
selected schools about the dangers of drug use and serve as positive 
role-models for leading a drug-free lifestyle 
 
BORDER GUARDS 
 
¶15. Tajikistan upgraded border outposts in the northern Sughd 
province on the border with Uzbekistan and Krygyzstan.  Sodiq 
Bobojonov of the Sughd regional administration said that 
construction of new and renovation of existing border outposts 
should be completed in the Sughd province by the end of this year. 
Qshould be completed in the Sughd province by the end of this year. 
The border outposts are located Zafarobod, Istaravshan, Konibodom, 
Qairoqqum, Isfara, Shahriston, Asht, Spitamen, Jabborrasulov, 
Kuhistoni Mastchoh and Ghonchi districts.  Bobojonov noted that the 
Tajik-Uzbek commission for delineation of border was completing its 
work in northern Tajikistan, while work of the Tajik-Kyrgyz border 
commission was on-going. 
 
JUSTICE SECTOR 
 
¶16. On October 9 the Open Society Institute's (OSI) legal program in 
partnership with the Constitutional Court of Tajikistan and NGO 
"Bureau of Human Rights and Rule of Law" conducted a roundtable on 
improving constitutional court proceedings.  OSI conducted a series 
of the similar round tables on the regional level in Khujand, 
 
DUSHANBE 00001514  003 OF 004 
 
 
Khorog, Kulyab and Qurghon-Teppa aiming to support the justice 
sector reform program in Tajikistan.  The goal of the reform program 
is to improve constitutional court activities by informing citizens 
that they can address complaints to the Constitutional Court, and 
informing them about additions to the law governing operation of the 
Constitutional Court. 
 
¶17. On Friday, October 17, DCM signed over $12,000 of computer 
equipment from INL to the Judicial Training Center at the Justice 
Council as the part of a project to support reform and professional 
improvement of Tajikistan's justice sector.  INL is collaborating 
with the Justice Council and Judicial Training Center to improve the 
selection and training process for new judges and to provide sitting 
judges with access to international developments in judicial 
methodology.  INL's justice sector program includes projects with 
the American Bar Association to reform the criminal procedures code, 
assist TajikistanQs defense bar associations, and expand secular law 
courses at the Islamic University. 
 
¶18. INL Dushanbe received 27 applications for grants to support 2009 
projects under the Justice Sector Reform Program.  INL and the other 
members of the embassy's Development Assistance Working Group 
chaired by the DCM will select recipients for grants up to a maximum 
of $50,000.  The grants will promote reform in legal sector by 
supporting legal aid, rural law education, access to justice, court 
monitoring, and third party arbitration. 
 
 
¶19. On Friday, December 5, Charge' presented a plaque to Naim 
Amirbekov, Chairman of the National Collegium of Defense Attorneys, 
commemorating the dedication of the Legal Resource Center at the 
National Collegium, the second of three collegia where ABA has 
created resource centers.  The resource center contains a 
commercially available database providing lawyers with access to 
Tajikistan's laws and criminal procedures.  On October 24, INL 
officer presented a plaque during the dedication of the resource 
center at the Dushanbe Defense Attorney Collegium.  Defense 
attorneys themselves suggested the creation of resource centers with 
legal databases for attorneys' use, because of the difficulty of 
preparing cases for clients and defending the rights of the accused 
without access to the necessary legal information. 
 
¶20. INL's cooperative program with ABA works with all three collegia 
to raise the qualifications and improve the professionalism of 
defense attorneys.  ABA and INL will open the resource center for 
the Sughd Collegium shortly.  The project provides training and 
information to balance the adversarial relationship between defense 
and prosecution, raise professional regard for defense attorneys 
within the justice system, enhance attorneys' skills and improve 
their legal knowledge, provide accountability of defense attorneys 
to their clients, and improve professional delivery of legal 
services. 
 
CORRUPTION 
 
¶21. The Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption 
instituted criminal proceedings against Mahmadullo Qurbonov, 
ex-director of the Nurek hydroelectric power station, and charged 
him with embezzlement of state funds.  The Agency reported that 
Qhim with embezzlement of state funds.  The Agency reported that 
Qurbonov and his deputy, Mahmadali Halimov, jointly with top 
managers of the limited liability company Nourafzo-2005, embezzled 
580,000 somoni in state funds in January 2006 by forging documents 
for purchase of spare parts.  In addition, authorities assert that 
the Nurek power station administration misappropriated 702,700 
somoni (over $206,000) while making a deal with the limited 
liability company Komron-Sh.  The Agency initiated a criminal case 
against Qurbonov and Halimov under Criminal Code articles 245, 
embezzlement or misappropriation of funds and 323, forgery. 
 
¶22. The Agency charged a senior teller with the National Bank of 
Tajikistan, Mustafo Asrorov, of embezzlement of funds from the 
Dushanbe Customs directorate.  According to reports, Asrorov visited 
the Dushanbe customs directorate twice in June of this year and 
received a total of 1,640,687 somoni in cash (over $480,000) which 
he embezzled by submitting forged receipts posting the sums to an 
account. 
 
 
¶23. In January-September 2008 in the Sughd province, the Agency 
 
DUSHANBE 00001514  004 OF 004 
 
 
detected 152 corruption-related and economic crimes.  According to 
Agency reports, this included 30 crimes related to misappropriation 
of state funds, 16 crimes related to bribery, 12 tax evasion cases, 
and 26 fraud cases.  Over the report period, 29 corruption-related 
cases investigated by the Sughd anticorruption directorate have 
already moved to courts. 
 
JACOBSON