DUSHANBE, March 5, Asia-Plus — The United Department of State recently published the 2008 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR), which describes the efforts of key countries to attack all aspects of the international drug trade in calendar year 2007. INCSR is an annual report by the Department of State to Congress prepared in accordance with the Foreign Assistance Act.
In the chapter about Tajikistan, the report, in particular says that Tajikistan is not a producer of illicit narcotics, but it is a major transit country for heroin and opium from Afghanistan. A significant amount of opium/heroin is trafficked, primarily using land-based routes, through Tajikistan, onward via the “Northern Route”—through Central Asia to Russia and west and east Europe. Approximately 40 percent reaches Russia; 30 percent goes to Europe; …there is no evidence of a significant amount of Afghan heroin transiting Tajikistan to the United States; estimates are that 3 percent of narcotics transiting Tajikistan go to the United States and 3 percent through Africa to South America.
Commenting on this subject, an official with the Drug Control Agency (said) that this information does not correspondent to the facts. “We have good contacts with the US special services, carry out joint operations as well as outside our republic, but we have never received information about Afghan heroin’s transiting Tajikistan to the United States,” said the DCA official. “Probably there is any mistake here.”
The report also says that Tajikistan is ill equipped to handle the myriad social problems that stem from narcotics trade and abuse. Tajikistan’s medical infrastructure is inadequate to address the population’s growing need for addiction treatment and rehabilitation. Still, the Tajik government continues to implement counternarcotics activities, yielding more seizures than all other Central Asian states combined. Tajikistan coordinates its activities with all major donors and surrounding countries. Tajik law enforcement continues to make arrests and seizures for mid- to low-level cases and there has been increased cooperation between Russia and Tajikistan on such cases. There continue to be opportunities for more solid cooperation between -Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and, most importantly, Afghanistan.
