DRAFT COUNTRY PROFILE 1999-2000

KYRGYZ REPUBLIC

Topography:

The Kyrgyz Republic is a small, land-locked country situated in the northeastern part of Central Asia. The total area of the Republic is 199,900 square kilometers. 90% of its territory is situated above 1,500 m above sea level. The Kyrgyz Republic is bounded by Kazakhstan in the north and northwest, by China in the east and south, and by Tajikistan and Uzbekistan in the south and west. Mountains separate the country’s demographic-economic centers : the Chui Valley (Semirechie) in the North, and the Ferghana Valley in the South. The total population of the Republic based on a mid-2000 estimate is 4.93 million. The country is divided in 7 provinces and 39 districts. The capital of Kyrgyzstan is Bishkek (called Frunze between 1926 and 1991).

(I)      Cultivation and Production

As per UN ODCCP data, Kyrgyzstan is the fourth country in the world after Peru, Afghanistan and Laos with respect to the alignment of its territory to areas under drug containing crops. From 1916 to 1973, opium poppy was licitly cultivated in the Republic. In 1973, Kyrgyzstan was supplying 16% of the world’s total licitly produced opium. Cannabis was licitly cultivated since 1933 as a raw material for industrial use till 1965.

Cannabis: Wild cannabis remains a significant problem in Kyrgyzstan. The most important area for cannabis harvesting is the Issy-Kul Province. This area is favoured by drug traffickers since it has wild cannabis with high THC content. Owing to economic difficulties, inhabitants of Issyk-Kul Province widely produce marijuana and hashish. Cannabis is smuggled to an increasing number of consumers in the Central Asian Republics, Russia and Europe.

With the aim to curb the cannabis growth in the republic, the Government of Kyrgyzstan adopted the resolution No.72 “Establishment of specialized groups for the eradication of wild growing cannabis” on 22.02.96.  On the basis of that document, 253 brigades eradicated 5000 hectares of cannabis bushes in the first 9 months of 1999.[1]

According to the UN ODCCP survey of 1999, in 16 districts surveyed of 5 provinces of the country, the area under cannabis cultivation was approximately 3.005 hectares, capable of producing 234,81 metric tones of marijuana and 8,22 metric tones of hashish. 70% of the cannabis found in the surveyed areas was either on abandoned farmland or on land being used for agricultural purposes. In comparison with 1998, the area under wild cannabis reportedly decreased in 1999 due to a very cold spring, which hindered growth. Another significant reason was that a lot of abandoned farmland was cultivated in 1999. In addition, the law enforcement authorities carried out eradication more effectively. It is predicted that in the near future, there may be a future drop in the area under wild cannabis because of these reasons.

Opium: In 1998 – 1999, opium poppy cultivation remained approximately the same. Cultivation is still mostly in garden plots or remote areas. A total of 818 square meters of poppy was found in 12 districts surveyed of 5 provinces. This corresponds to an estimated 3,2724 kg of opium.[2]

Production: Kyrgyzstan is not a major producer of illicit narcotics. According to the Kyrgyz Ministry of Interior, one of the factors, though insignificant now, of sating the drug market, is the growth of narcotics production in the clandestine laboratories and in primitive home conditions.   This refers mainly to methcathinone made from ephedrine, which is extracted from the Ephedra plant growing abundantly in Kyrgyzstan. Two clandestine methcathinone  producing laboratories have been revealed in 1998.[3]

(II)       Illicit Drug Trafficking

Due to its geographical location, the Kyrgyz Republic is a popular transit route for narcotic trafficking from Afghanistan and Pakistan into Russia and Western Europe. Deterioration in the safeguarding of borders and the internal situation in Tajikistan are among the main reasons of increased illicit drug trafficking. The Kyrgyz law enforcement officers state that in 1992, Tajik refugees became so-called discoverers of more than 30 mountain paths along 800 kilometers of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border, which later turned into narcotic drugs and weapon smuggling routes.

Heroin and opium flow to the country from Afghanistan via Tajikistan is increasing following changes in drug abuse patterns in the region. 261,5 kg of opium were seized only in January-February 2000, which is already almost three times more than the total opium seizures for 1999.  Over the first six months in 2000, Kyrgyz law enforcement agencies seized 41 kilos of heroin, compared to the total 1999 seizures of 26,8 kg. In mid July 2000, 31 kilograms of Afghan heroin hidden in empty gas cylinders were confiscated in the Batken Province. Up to now this is the largest seizure of heroin made in Kyrgyzstan.[4] 

At present, drugs are smuggled from the territory of Tajikistan into Kyrgyztstan through the following routes:

1)      Kyzyl-Art route, which includes Khorog-Osh highway and adjacent areas close to the border of the Murghab district of Gorno-Badakhshan Province;

2)      Altyn-Mazar route, which starts from Raushan plateau and goes through ravines of the Zaalay range to the Chon-Alay valley;

3)      Batken route, which starts in the Jergatal and Garm districts of Tajikistan and goes to the Batken and Kadamjay districts of Osh Province;

4)      Leninabad route, which includes all highways from the Lyailyak district and areas adjacent to Uzbekistan towards the Oblast center.

 

Each of these routes comprises a number of various smuggling channels, mountain paths and roads.

The difficulties of controlling drug traffic from Afghanistan include harsh high-altitude and climatic conditions at the main drug route Khorog-Osh (3000 meters above sea-level, winter temperature of minus 40 degrees Celcius); involvement of governmental officials and law enforcement officers, as well as use of mountain trails by drug smugglers which bypass border guard posts.[5]

There is a steady increase in the volume of illicit drug trafficking in the territory of the Issyl-Kul region where wild hemp grows. Bishkek city and the Chui Province continue to be large transit and distribution junctions, through which growing volumes of drugs are smuggled. Great concern is caused by the growing drug trafficking from the south along the Bishkek-Osh highway. The Batken direction is becoming the most beneficial for the drug-traffickers. A new road connecting Talas province with the city of Taraz in Kazakhstan is increasingly being used by traffickers as this road is not fully controlled by law enforcement authorities. Illicit drug trafficking in Kyrgyzstan gradually becomes an inter-regional one with well-established contacts between local drug-dealers as well as dealers from CIS and foreign states. As a result, illicit drugs smuggled via this state are more often found and confiscated almost in all CIS and in some foreign countries. In 1999, for the first time, Afghan heroin smuggled in parcels from Kyrgyzstan and destined for the USA and Puerto-Rico, was seized in the USA. In August 1999, the US customs inspectors informed about 5 kg of heroin seized in 9 certain cases.[6]

(III)     Drug Abuse

Expert’s estimates on the number of drug addicts in the country are different. Some state that there are 7000, others 14-21000 and 50000 drug addicts.[7] According to the official data, over the last five years the number of drug addicts in Kyrgyzstan rose by 350%. At the end of 1999, there were 4127 registered drug and toxic substance addicts under prophylactic observation. 94,1% of the total are capable of working (18 – 45 years old), and 5% of the total are women.[8] At the end of 1999, Bishkek had 8 HIV drug addicts[9]. The average increment of drug addicts in the country is 25 per cent annually.

It is reported that 13-14 is the starting age for drug abuse in the republic, whereas systematic use of drugs starts at 15-16. There are some cases of drug addiction at the age of 10 – 12.[10] The conducted anonymous poll among young people between the ages of 16-26 indicates that 18% of Kyrgyzstan youth take drugs episodically, 34% of respondents have tried drugs once in their life, and 48% of the respondents consider drugs harmless.

Due to a ban on opium cultivation imposed by the ex-Soviet Government, opium abuse continued to decline till 1993. Nowadays 50.8% of all drug abuses are opium addicts, 37.4% - cannabis addicts and 8.3% - multi-drug abusers.[11] Heroin addicts were for the first time registered in 1998. About 50% of drug addicts take drugs intravenously, more than 50% smoke, and 5% take drugs internally.

Opium and its products as well as synthetic and semi-synthetic drugs, such as heroin, amphetamines and psychotropic substances have gradually replaced traditional “light” drugs, like hashish and marijuana. Nowadays one gram of heroin costs 2 - 3 US dollars in Bishkek.  

(IV)     Fight Against Illicit Drugs

Kyrgyzstan is a party to the 1988 UN Drug Convention as well as the 1961 UN Single Convention and 1971 UN Convention of Psychotropic Substances. A special governmental program focused on the demand reduction and illegal drug trafficking for the years of 1998 to 2000 is being implemented in the Republic.  In April 1988, Kyrgyzstan was the first in Central Asia to pass a law regulating the issues of legal and illegal turnover of drugs, illicit narcotics, and precursors and establishing rules for handling them. The State Drug Control Commission has developed a concept for the national policy on drug control for the period of 1998 to 2000 that envisages regulations on the confiscation, storage and disposal of illicit narcotics. The new Criminal Code of the Kyrgyz Republic envisages the death penalty for large-scale drug trafficking. The Ministry of Interior, the Anti-narcotic Divisions of the National Security Service and Customs are engaged in counter-narcotic activities. But their current efforts are insufficient. Because of difficult social-economic situation, the Government cannot fully provide these agencies with special searching equipment, communication and transport facilities, etc.

A.     Internal Level

  Drug-related crimes*

* Report on drug situation in Kyrgyzstan in 1997-1998;

Information on  drug-related crimes in  Kyrgyzstan in 1999. State Drug Control Commission.

At the beginning of the 90-s, every 20 – 25^th criminal case was drug-related. Today, drug-related crime is every tenth. In 1999, Kyrgyzstan’s law enforcement agencies investigated 3,459 drug-related crimes (182 more than in 1998). Their share in the total number of committed crimes was 8,65%. 82% of all drug-related proceedings have been instituted for drug storage. Drug smuggling crimes have almost doubled. Every eighth convict in the country has been sentenced for drug-related crime.

3187 people were detained for drug-related crimes. More young people have become involved in drug trafficking. In 1999, 40 % of the total apprehended were young people from 18 to 29 years old. The number of women detained for illicit drug trafficking has increased - 344 in 1999 versus 320 in 1998.[12] 

Drug Seizures in 1995 – 1999 (kg)* 

 *Annual Report 1999, UN ODCCP Regional Office for Central Asia

        80% of the total heroin and 58% of the total opium seized in the country in 1999 were confiscated by Osh police. Due to nearly five years of drug smuggling, this southern Kyrgyz capital, has gained the name “Narco-Mecca”.  An armed aggression into Kyrgyzstan in 1999, called “the Batken drug intrusion” was aimed at taking under control the most promising regional drug routes in the south of Kyrgyzstan, using destabilizing terror and sabotage.

        In order to strengthen the fight against illicit drug trafficking via the southern border of the Republic, drug control units have been set up in Alay, Kara-Su districts of the Osh Province and in the newly established Batken Province, where the drug situation continues to be complicated and has a tendency towards aggravation. Similar units have also been set up in Chui-Tokmok city of the Chu region and in the Bazar-Korgon district of the Jalal-Abad Province, where there was no unit before.

B.        International Level

Kyrgyzstan has counter-narcotics agreements with a number of countries, such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Russia, Pakistan, Germany, Austria and the Czech Reublic. Similar agreements with India, China, France and Iran are under preparation. The concerned ministries and agencies of the Republic have their own inter-departmental agreements on drug control cooperation.

An international seminar on drug trafficking entitled “Great Silk Road and the Fight Against Drug-dealing in Central Asia” sponsored by Carnegi Endowment with the participation of experts from the USA, Russia, Turkey, Afghanistan, Azerbaijan as well as from the five Central Asian states, was held in Bishkek in May 1999.

At the Bishkek Summit of the Shanghai Five in August 1999, the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and China adopted the Bishkek declaration, which emphasizes “the importance of efficient struggle against international terrorism, illegal drug trade, weapon smuggling, illegal migration and other kinds of trans-border crimes”.  

In September 1999, the Kyrgyz Republic took the initiative of holding the first Organizing Session of the Inter-governmental Drug Control Commission of the Central Asian Economic Community of the Central Asian Community (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), which was established in December 1997. The document adopted in this session aims at the further expansion of regional cooperation, as well as improvement and bringing together the legislation basis of the Member States.

The second final meeting of the countries party to MOU on drug control cooperation in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, UN ODCCP, and Agha Khan Foundation) was held in October 1999 in Cholpon-Ata city. An agreement signed at this meeting envisages further expansion of multilateral cooperation between Member States and considerable increase of financial and technical assistance by the UN ODCCP.   

Protocol on cooperation for the year 2000 to combat illicit drug trafficking and international terrorism was developed and signed between the Kyrgyz Republic and Russian Federation’s Ministries of Interior.

A Memorandum on cooperation in fighting trans-national organized crime, illegal drug trafficking and other violations was signed between Kygyzstan and Great Britain in February 2000. According to this Memorandum, the British Government will provide financial and technical assistance to combat drug trafficking. Over the last five years, the British Government has donated drug detection equipment, night vision instruments, a custom vehicle and examination equipment to the State Customs Inspectorate of the Kyrgyz Republic, equivalent to  US$ 16 000. Talks are currently taking place for a US$ 1 million grant to the Kyrgyz Customs.

An international colloquium “Opium War in Central Asia: Afghan Drug Traffic and National Security Problems of Central Asian countries” was held in May 2000, on the initiative of the Soros Foundation-Kyrgyzstan, the Ministry of Interior and the Kyrgyz office of the International Association for the fight against drug use and drug trafficking.

(V)       Treatment and Rehabilitation

There are 329 beds for drug addicts in the governmental drug rehabilitation centers and hospitals of the republic, equivalent to 0,7 per 10,000 population. The Republic has a number of governmental drug abuse treatment and rehabilitation institutions, which are as follows:

(i) Republican Drug Abuse Center, with a           consultative drug abuse prevention unit for           adolescents;

(ii) Four drug abuse and mental clinics in            provinces;

(iii) Drug Addiction Department in the Jalal-Abad  Republican Neurological hospital;

(iv) 49 drug abuse consulting-units in cities and     provinces.

The governmental narcological service is exhausted because of insufficient funding, while private medical care cannot fill the vacuum and become public due to the prevailing low living standards in the country. The field office of Medecins sans Frontiers is distributing syringes and condoms among addicts, and organizes first aid centers with food, sterile syringes, as well as medical and psychological care for addicts. Several non-governmental organizations and associations provide medical treatment and assistance to drug addicts in the country. The Private Medical Center of Dr. Nazaraliev in Bishkek is a famous drug treatment center in Central Asia. Treatment for drug addiction here varies from US$ 5 000 to 7 000.

Sources/Publications used in preparing this profile:

1. Information on drug situation in Kyrgyzstan. State Drug Control Commission.

2. Information on drug-related crimes in Kyrgyzstan in 1999. State Drug Control Commission.

3. Report on drug situation in Kyrgyzstan in 1997-1998 prepared by the State Drug Control Commission.

4. Informational Bulletin on drug situation in Central Asian region. No.1 for 1999.

5. Bulletin No.2 for 1998. Documents of the drug control seminars hold in 1996.

6. Bulletin No.4 for 1998. Documents of the Republican Scientific Conference held in November 1998 in Bishkek.

 7. Informational Bulletin on drug situation in Central Asian region. No.1 for 2000.

 8. Summary Record of the Joint ECO-UNDCP Legal Training Workshop. Tehran, 1-5 March 1999.

 9. Summary Record of the ECO-DCCU Task Force Meetings. Tehran, 26 – 28 February 2000.

 10.   Report on drug situation in the Kyrgyz Republic for 1999 prepared by the Drug Control Department of the Ministry of Interior.

 11. UN ODCCP. Cannabis and Opium Poppy. Annual Survey 1999.

 12. UN ODCCP Regional Office for Central Asia. Annual Report 1999.

 13. “The Times of Central Asia” 1999 – 2000.

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