US gives 2.4 million to curb drug trafficking

The US has announced a US $2.4 million grant to help the Tajik government fight drug trafficking. The country is a major route for heroin exports from neighbouring Afghanistan to Europe and North America. "The money follows a bilateral letter of Agreement on Narcotics Control and Law Enforcement signed on 27 January of this year by both sides, adding a programme to provide training, technical assistance and equipment to Tajik law enforcement agencies," Fiona Evans, the public affairs and consular officer at the US Embassy in Tajikistan, told IRIN from the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, on Friday. "This programme will be administered by a US civilian police adviser assigned to the US embassy in Dushanbe," she added. Between January and April 2003, four tonnes of drugs, including 2.7 tonnes of heroin, were seized at the Tajik/Afghan border, this compared to 1.4 tonnes last year. "When one considers that no seizure programme is ever 100 percent effective, it becomes clear that a huge amount of narcotics is transiting the country," she said, noting that the Tajik president, Emomali Rahmonov, had described drug trafficking as one of the most significant threats to national and regional security. "The US government shares this analysis," she said. With Afghanistan producing the largest amount of opium in the world, there is increasing pressure from the international community on that country to stop poppy cultivation. Poppy cultivation was successfully banned by the ousted Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The government of President Hamid Karzai has also imposed a ban, but there are worrying signs that the crop is re-emerging. According to the US State Department, about 30,750 ha of poppy were cultivated during the 2002 crop season. The government last year and tried to end poppy cultivation by offering growers cash compensation, but the farmers say the crop is far too lucrative to give up. At present, a kilogramme of heroin is sold at the Afghan/Tajik border for between $2,500 and $4,000, depending on quality. Once it reaches Europe, the prices skyrocket, with the street value of a kilogramme rising to $250,000, according statistics from the UN's Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Many efforts are being made in Afghanistan to end poppy cultivation. "We have been concerned to see a continued flow of narcotics from Afghanistan following the Taliban's removal, and are working with the Afghan government to improve Afghanistan's ability to counter that threat," Evans said. The US grant to Tajikistan will be spent on a number of measures to curb drug trafficking. First, a 10-week assessment will be carried out by the civilian police adviser at the embassy to determine the most pressing needs of Tajik law enforcement agencies, and to help develop a programme plan. This plan will be approved by an inter-agency council with the adviser and representatives from relevant agencies of the government of Tajikistan. Other than on this, Evans said no firm expenditures had been planned, but the overall objective was to improve Tajik law enforcement's policing and counter-narcotics capabilities through better training and technical assistance. This may also involve some procurement of necessary equipment. Possible training courses could include forensics/crime-scene investigation, law-enforcement management, internal-affairs investigations, money-laundering, management and curriculum development for training academies, intelligence analysis, civil rights, and any number of other law enforcement-related topics. This donation from the US government is an amendment to an earlier agreement with the Tajik government under which assistance in the form of equipment only was being offered to the Drug Control Agency (DCA) and the border guards. The US has been a significant donor towards the DCA's operations since its creation in 1999, channelling money through UNODC, which is directly responsible for the creation and monitoring of the DCA project. As part of the same Freedom Support Act supplement passed by the US Congress in 2002, the US will also be crediting UNODC with $2.9 million towards supporting DCA operations for the next few years, as well as $500,000 for development and training in asset forfeiture as a means of long-term self-sufficiency for the DCA. In addition to this, the Export Control and Border Security (Exbs) programme has so far delivered about $1.7 million in training and equipment assistance to the Tajik Border Guards and Customs Service since the programme was launched in Tajikistan in 2001. "Though the Exbs programme is primarily targeted towards control of weapons of mass destruction, its initial efforts have focused on mobility, communications, and inspection equipment, and skills that are equally applicable to counter-narcotics work," Evans said.