VZCZCXRO8654
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHNEH RUEHPW RUEHSK RUEHVK
RUEHYG
DE RUEHDBU #0124/01 0300333
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 300333Z JAN 09
FM AMEMBASSY DUSHANBE
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1428
INFO RUEHVEN/USMISSION USOSCE VIENNA AU
RUCNCLS/SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 0297
RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE
RUEABND/DEA HQ WASHINGTON DC
RUEAWJA/DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC//ICITAP
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DUSHANBE 000124 
 
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 TI
SUBJECT: TAJIKISTAN: DECEMBER 2008 LAW ENFORCEMENT DEVELOPMENTS 
 
¶1. SUMMARY:  Tajik law-enforcement authorities continued seizing 
significant amounts of narcotics in 2008, over six tons and drafted 
an interdiction and demand reduction plan through 2012.  Border 
skirmishes continued unabated as Tajik border guards intercept armed 
traffickers from Afghanistan.  Drug traffickers are kidnapping 
border area Tajiks for ransom until their families pay ransom money 
to clear debts for drug deals.  A regional Tajik court sentenced two 
Afghan nationals to 24 years for drug trafficking and illegal border 
crossing.  The Drug Control Agency burned the largest quantity of 
drugs in its history, more than two tons.  Afghan security services 
handed over to Tajik authorities the reported head of the outlawed 
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan/Turkestan (IMU/IMT).  Border guards 
and other law enforcement officers continue to seize notable amounts 
of weapons including machine guns and grenade launchers.  Not to be 
overlooked, Customs officer in the north of Tajikistan seized a 
large shipment of smuggled fireworks.  The Tajik Government is 
developing a new AML law but very slowly, preferring to extend a 
property registration amnesty law for another six months.  The Tajik 
Government submitted a draft law on freedom of conscience and 
religious associations to parliament for its consideration.  The 
Tajik Anti-Corruption Agency said that corruption cost Tajikistan 
some 89.6 million Somoni ($24 million) in 2008.  OSCE conducted a 
five-day training course on the rights of trafficked persons and 
effective investigation and prosecution of human trafficking cases. 
End summary. 
 
DRUGS SEIZURES 2008 SUMMARY 
 
¶2. In 2008, 3.4 of the six tons of narcotics seized were opiates 
including 1.6 tons of heroin and 1.7 tons of raw opium.  Police 
seized 2.7 tons, the counter narcotics agency seized 1.3 tons, 
border guards seized 1.1 tons, security officers seized 841 
kilograms, and customs officers intercepted 91 kilograms.  Since its 
founding nine years ago, the Drug Control Agency seized sixty tons 
of drugs in Tajikistan, including more than twenty-eight tons of 
heroin.  This amount of heroin could supply 30 million addicts if 
had not been intercepted, however, of the 1.3 tons of narcotics the 
DCA seized in 2008 only 368 kilograms was heroin, their lowest total 
in the last three years. 
¶3. The Tajik government is taking measures to stop drug transit. 
The government recently designed a targeted comprehensive national 
program to prevent drug addiction and counter drug trafficking in 
Tajikistan for the 2008-12 period. 
 
BORDER GUARDS' 2008 RESULTS 
 
¶4. On January 7, Colonel-General Khayriddin Abdurahimov head of the 
State Committee of National Security, the parent organization of the 
Border Guards, reviewed the results of 2008 and laid plans for 2009. 
 Border Guards officers reported to him that during the last year 
border guards and armed drug smugglers were involved in seventeen 
skirmishes on the Tajik-Afghan border.  Border Guards killed ten 
drug smugglers and wounded two others.  Overall, Border Guards 
detained twenty-one drug couriers in 2008.  Last year Border Guards 
seized 916 kilograms of narcotics.  The total included 110 kilograms 
of heroin, 752 kilograms of cannabis and 53 kilograms of raw opium. 
 
Q 
 
RECENT BORDER OPERATIONS 
 
¶5. On December 29 Tajik Border Guards arrested two Afghan drug 
dealers, Khairullo valadi Sulaymon and Sufinazar valadi Imomnazar, 
in Khatlon's Shurabad district who were taking Tajiks from border 
villages and holding them hostage until their families paid ransom 
money to clear debts for drug deals.  Border guards carried out a 
special operation in the border village of Porvor in Shurabad.  They 
confiscated more than 100 kilograms of drugs and two Kalashnikov 
sub-machine-guns.  Reporting on the border operations the Border 
Guard spokesman said that Shurabad is the most vulnerable part of 
Tajikistan's common border with Afghanistan.  (Note: Using UNODC as 
an implementing agent, INL has rebuilt three border observation 
posts in the Shurabad area and has several additional projects 
underway.  End note.) 
 
AFGHANS LOCKED AWAY FOR 24 YEARS 
 
¶6. A regional court sentence two Afghan nationals to 24- year jail 
terms for drug trafficking at a sentencing hearing on December 16. 
The Khatlon regional court sentenced Sultonmahmad valadi Gulokhon 
and Rafiq valadi Shervali to in a high-security penal colony. 
According to Ismatullo Rasulov, an official with the Khatlon 
 
DUSHANBE 00000124  002 OF 003 
 
 
regional prosecutor's office, the sentence followed their conviction 
on charges of involvement in drug trafficking and illegally crossing 
the border.  Border Guards detained them in the Khatlon province on 
September 17 carrying 14.8 kilograms of hashish. 
 
DRUG CONTROL AGENCY BURNS TWO TONS OF NARCOTICS 
 
¶7. On December 26 the Drug Control Agency burned more than two tons 
of narcotics in the furnace at Tajiktekstilmash plant in Dushanbe. 
It was the largest drug burning in the history of the Agency.  The 
total included more than one ton of raw opium, 390 kilograms of 
heroin and more than 622 kilograms of cannabis.  Officers from the 
counter narcotics agency confiscated the drugs in the course of 
2007-2008.  The narcotics were material evidence in 148 drug-related 
criminal cases.  According to the Agency, they have burned more than 
ten tons of drugs, including more than four tons of heroin since 
2003, when the U.S. funded the UNODC project to establish the 
counternarcotics agency began. 
 
CRIME/TERRORISM 
 
¶8. On December 27, Afghan security services handed over to the Tajik 
government Anvarjon Qayumov, the reported head of the outlawed 
Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan/Turkestan (IMU/IMT) who had fled from 
the Isfara in northern Tajikistan.  Afghan authorities detained the 
41-year old Qayumov at the request of Tajik authorities who is 
reported to have attempted to kill police officers and is suspected 
in a number of other serious crimes.  Last November security 
services of Tajikistan and Afghanistan initiated discussions on a 
mutual extradition agreement and the State Committee for National 
Security provided to the Afghan security service a list of wanted 
Tajik nationals.  On December 24 Tajikistan and Afghanistan 
concluded the agreement for the transfer of prisoners which resulted 
in the handover of Qayumov to Tajik law enforcement authorities. 
 
WEAPONS: BOTTLE ROCKETS AND GRENADE LAUNCHERS 
 
¶9.  On December 29 law enforcement authorities confiscated 18 
Kalashnikov machine-guns, ten pistols, six grenade launchers, 18 
hand grenades, 17 hunting guns, and 2,000 bullets of different 
calibers in the Kulob district of Khatlon province. 
 
¶10. Sugd customs officers in northern Tajikistan seized nearly 
37,000 pyrotechnics at the Khudjand Customs checkpoint.  Customs 
officers inspected a vehicle that came from Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic 
and found 35,600 firecrackers, 930 "salutes" and 332 other items 
among a shipment of fabric.  The preliminary investigation 
established that the fireworks belong to an entrepreneur from the 
Bobojon Gafurov district, Ms. Dilbar Ismoilova. 
 
¶11. Border guards jointly with officers from other law enforcement 
and security agencies carried out 79 special operations in 2008 that 
led to the seizure of 36 firearms, including 14 Kalashnikov 
sub-machine guns, 13 grenade launchers, six carbines, two pistols, 
one machine gun, and 717 bullets of different calibers. 
 
LEGISLATION: AML LAW DELAYED; LAW ON RELIGION PASSED 
 
¶12. The Tajik Government is developing a new AML law but slowly. 
The current version of the AML law was drafted in 2007.  Reportedly, 
the government will adopt the law after the end of the extended 
period of legalization of property.  President Rahmon reported 
advocated extending the popularly titled amnesty law.  Officially 
Qadvocated extending the popularly titled amnesty law.  Officially 
Parliament postponed the deadline from December 31, 2008 to June of 
2009 at the request of the people. 
 
¶13. The Tajik Government submitted a draft law on freedom of 
conscience and religious associations to parliament for its 
consideration.  It is anticipated that the religion law will be 
passed in the first half of 2009.  The draft law is viewed by many 
as a continued attempt to control the increasing power of religion 
in Tajik society.  Authorities view the power of religious groups as 
a threat to the government, which is unable to solve socio-economic 
issues in the country. 
 
CORRUPTION 
 
¶14. Anticorruption agency director, Sherkhon Salimzoda, announced 
that corruption was widespread in government agencies and ministries 
in Tajikistan at a roundtable meeting entitled "Specialized 
Anticorruption Institutions: Experience of Europe and Central Asia" 
 
DUSHANBE 00000124  003 OF 003 
 
 
in Dushanbe on December 12.  As evidence, Salimzoda pointed to a 
case where an investigator with the Prosecutor-General's Office was 
caught red-handed while taking a bribe. 
 
¶15. The Tajik anti-corruption agency released a report that 
corruption cost Tajikistan some 89.6 million Somoni ($24 million). 
The Agency said it has taken disciplinary action against 1,145 
officials and sacked 58 officials for corruption.  Not surprisingly, 
Tajikistan ranked 150th out of 180 countries surveyed in 
Transparency International's latest annual corruption perceptions 
index (CPI). 
 
TRAFFICKING 
 
 
¶16. OSCE conducted a five-day training course on the rights of 
trafficked persons and effective investigation and prosecution of 
human trafficking cases on December 18.  The Dushanbe OSCE Office 
said that the course brought together senior police officers, 
prosecutors, and judges from Tajik law enforcement agencies that are 
responsible for investigation of human trafficking crimes. 
Lithuanian experts led the training course and comprised 
presentations, interactive group discussions and a case simulation, 
followed by a debriefing.  Note: INL coordinates U.S. 
anti-trafficking programs with the OSCE and intends to conduct 
additional courses for law enforcement teachers at the MVD Academy 
using the same trainer.  End note. 
 
 
QUAST