Crime and addiction rising on opium front line

Since the overthrow of the Taliban - who banned poppy cultivation in Afghanistan - at the end of 2001, the level of heroin transiting through southern Uzbekistan has been increasing as Afghan opium output has reached new highs. The increase is leading to new security and health problems in the unstable former Soviet republic. In Surkhandarya province, bordering Afghanistan, heroin seizures and drug-related crimes have been rising steadily over the past two years. Last year, the provincial anti-narcotics authorities arrested more than 650 people in connection with drug trafficking, up from 500 just 12 months ago. According to a representative of the Interior Ministry, Rustam Togaev, a big heroin haul of 92 kg was found in the frontier zone of Sariasi district in February. "There are more crimes connected with drugs in Denus, Sarias and Uzun districts. They also take place in the [border] city of Termez," Ismatullo Choriev, the secretary of the provincial commission on drug control, said. "More drug crimes are observed in Termez, and they are increasing," he stated. "When the Taliban was in power in Afghanistan, we used to seize several kilograms of heroin per week," Shavkat Esanov of the Baisun Interior Ministry department said. "We expected a decrease of drug trafficking after American troops were brought into Afghanistan, but we witness the opposite. In March for example, a large batch of heroin - 37 kg - was discovered at the 'Chak-chak' post." According to the official, the preferred route for traffickers is into Tajikistan and through Uzbekistan en route to western markets. The heroin enters Tajikistan in the hands of well-organised teams of couriers who wade across the Amudarya and Pyanj rivers, usually at night, backed up by accomplices armed with satellite phones, off-road vehicles, wads of bribe money and plenty of heavy weapons. "Borders [throughout the region] are not guarded well," Kamol Dusmetov, head of the Uzbek National Centre for Drug Control, said. "In many places, such as Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, borders are virtually open. You jump across a ditch and you're in another country." Local Uzbek officials were reluctant to admit there was significant heroin trafficking direct from Afghanistan. "We observe the flow of narcotics only from Tajikistan," said Rustam Togaev, head of the counter-narcotics unit at the Surkhandarya provincial interior department. "Every person who wants to get a little bit rich is involved in that." The official line from Tashkent is that illicit drug trafficking via Uzbekistan's southern border posts is now impossible because earlier this year border guards and customs staff were given special equipment, including X-ray devices for checking passenger baggage and cargo flows at border control points. Local officials went further. "Effective policing means that illicit drug trafficking across the 130-km Uzbek-Afghan border is now virtually impossible," Shavkat Esanov, a senior law-enforcement official in one of Surkhandarya's districts, told IRIN, without going into details. "The project, with a total budget of more than US $2 million, is aimed at improving customs and border control at the Khayraton border crossing point on the Uzbek-Afghan border along with enhancing the capacity of Uzbekistan's law-enforcement bodies in their fight against illicit drugs," the state UzA news agency reported in late March, adding that the main donors for the project were the UK, Norway, USA and Finland. In common with other countries in the region, poverty is at the root of the Uzbek heroin transit trade. "Mostly unemployed citizens are engaged in illegal drug trafficking," Ismatullo Choriev, of the drug control body, said. "In order to provide social security to people, new jobs must be generated. Conditions must be created so that they can purchase plots of land to earn their living". Despite a lack of official figures, local health practitioners say the level of drug abuse in Uzbek provinces bordering Afghanistan is on the increase. "In 2003, the number of registered drugs addicts was up to 2,300," Oibek Turdiev, a doctor from the drug rehabilitation clinic in Termez, a border town in Surkhandarya province, told IRIN. The reason is the vastly increased flow of opium and heroin into southern Uzbekistan from neighbouring Afghanistan and Tajikistan. According to the doctor, at present there are at least 2,000 addicts registered in the province, of whom 87 are women, nearly double what it was just three years ago. But as addiction remains a social taboo and drug abusers are reluctant to register, official figures are misleading. "To come to the real number, this figure must be multiplied by six or seven," the doctor said. "This is how we can get an approximate number of the addicts". "When I was getting used to heroin, it was because of despair. I suffered a lot. Sometimes there was no meat at home, and sometimes there was not even any flour. When I started using drugs, I had a feeling that there were no problems at all. So, I thought of only buying heroin instead of flour or meat," Hasan Akhmedov, a heroin addict from Zarabag village, about 50 km from the Afghan border, told IRIN. But poverty and cheap, easily available heroin make kicking the drug very hard. "At least 400 addicts are treated annually in our hospital but only about 10 to 12 percent of them quit this harmful habit," Juma Eshbaev, the head physician at the Surkhandarya provincial drugs clinic, said. "The causes of drug problems in the region are social and economic problems," Choriev told IRIN in Termez. "We are addressing the issue with the aim of providing people with jobs. We found out that in year 2003 there were a lot of crimes committed by unemployed people," he added."People are not paid and this is a soaring problem all over the republic."