DUSHANBE, October 21, 2008, Asia-Plus — A two-day ministerial conference on “Border Management and Drug Control in Central Asia” opened in Dushanbe today.
Addressing the conference, President Emomali Rahmon noted due to geopolitical and historical factors the issues tabled to the agenda of the conference are of special significance for Tajikistan.
According to him, drugs, weapons and subversive literate were smuggled into Tajikistan via weakly protected borders in the mid-1990s, raising tensions. He pointed out a significant role of Russia in strengthening of border management in Tajikistan in that time. Since 2005, Tajikistan has patrolled its border by itself, the president noted.
Rahmon appreciated donor countries’ support for modernization of Tajik border troops, noting that the technical assistance had promoted improvement of technical and logistical equipment of the country’s border troops. “However, there are some faults in terms of comparability of the provided equipment and real requirements,” said Rahmon, “There are also agreements that remain just on paper,” the Tajik leader said, terming establishment of the Border Guard Training Centre in Dushanbe as an example.
“I would like to remind that Tajikistan is not a drug-producing country; however, due to its geopolitical situation and long common border with Afghanistan it has turned into one of the main barriers in the way of transit of narcotics drugs to the CIS, Europe and the Unite States,” Ramon noted.
According to him, more than 60 tons of opiates, including 28 tons of heroin, have been seized in Tajikistan over the past nine years. He noted that over the first eight months of this year, 170 citizens of Tajikistan have been detained outside the country on suspicion of having been involved in drug trafficking; however, compared to 2000 the number of Tajiks detained in other countries for drug trafficking has reduced by 60 percent due to an active work of Tajik special services.
In the first half-year of 2008, Tajikistan has accounted for 42 percent of the total amount of contraband opiates seized in the CIS and 68 percent of opiates seized in Central Asia, Rahmon said, pointing the necessity of creation of multilevel system of international cooperation in combating drug trafficking.
According to him, not only neighbors of Afghanistan but also drug-consuming countries should be involved in tackling drug-trafficking problems.
The Tajik head of state also noted that during an August summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Tajikistan proposed to set up the center for training and retraining officers from counternarcotics services in Dushanbe.
The conference, staged by the Tajik MFA, Drug Control Agency at the President of Tajikistan, the OSCE, the European Union (EU), and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), aims to foster closer regional cooperation and identify ways to strengthen synergies among the different stakeholders with respect to border management and drug control in Central Asia
Today, representatives of organizations helping Central Asia”s states strengthen border management, are presenting their activities.
Tomorrow, ministers responsible in charge of border management will meet. Heads of five Central Asia’s states and Afghanistan will present their national border management strategies.
