DUSHANBE, September 28, 2011, Asia-Plus — Six high-ranking Kyrgyz state officials have reportedly been dismissed in connection with fuel smuggling to Tajikistan.
Referring to acting Kyrgyz Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov, TV and Radio Company Mir reported on September 28 that six high-ranking Kyrgyz state officials, including the national security service chairman and the finance police chief, were dismissed in connection with fuel smuggling to Tajikistan. Seven criminal proceedings have been instituted over smuggling of gasoline and diesel fuel into Tajikistan.
Over the last three months alone, some 700,000 tons of fuels have been smuggled out of Kyrgyzstan into Tajikistan and 360,000 other tons of fuels have been seized by customs officers on the border, Mir reports. Every day, dozens of tank trucks were reportedly transporting Russian fuels, bought by Kyrgyz suppliers for domestic use, to Tajikistan.
We will recall that Radio Liberty’s Kyrgyz Service reported in early September that two Kyrgyz officials have been detained on suspicion of involvement in the illegal export of gasoline to Tajikistan.
Kalybek Satybaldiyev, the chief of the Kyrgyz Interior Ministry”s Counter-Organized Crime Directorate, told RFE/RL on September 2 that Ulan Babayev of the Finance Police and Nuradil Toktosunov of the Tax Service were arrested in late August.
Satybaldiyev said the two officials abused their official positions and forged documentation to enable criminal groups to steal gasoline and export it to Tajikistan.
Besides, Prime Minister Almazbek Atambayev ordered on September 12 to dismiss all heads of law enforcement agencies in Batken region. In particular, he said the chief of Finance Police department in Batken region, chief of Border Service in Batken region, chief of State National Security department in Batken region and several chiefs of local administrations should be dismissed. “All of them should be dismissed and new people should be hired in replacement. We have lots of unemployed officers,” he said.
