DRAFT COUNTRY PROFILE 1998

REPUBLIC OF TAJIKISTAN

I.       Cultivation and Production

Cannabis.

            Cannabis, as well as opium poppy grows wild in the mountainous regions of Penjikent and Gorno-Badakhshan in Tajikistan.*

Opium.

            Tajikistan produces a small amount of opium, primarily in the Aini and Penjikent districts close to the Uzbekistan border. There are two or three opium poppy harvests each year. Poppy cultivated area has been reduced by 65 hectares in the course of  “Black Poppy-98” eradication operation.**

II.                Illicit Drug Trafficking

        Tajikistan’s geographic location and present political situation make it an attractive transit route for opiates and cannabis products from Afghanistan to Europe. Volume of drugs smuggled via the republic is increasing. Clandestine laboratories manufacturing heroin and morphine mostly situated in Nangarhar and Hellmand areas, close to border with Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. An estimated 75 percent of the drugs carried by land from Afghanistan via Tajikistan go through Shurabad, Muminabad, and Pyanj districts. The drugs are then moved into Russia by train, car or airplane and are destined primarily for Western Europe, although some are also routed to the United States via transit countries in Europe. Tajikistan, as other Central Asian states, is also used as a transit country for smuggling chemicals (in particular, acetic anhydride) used in illicit heroin manufacture into Afghanistan and other countries in southwest Asia. Given the reduction of border forces in the republic, the longer and more risky route via Iran due to law enforcement troops deployed along Iran-Afganistan-Pakistan border, and the 1998 opening of a new road between eastern Tajikistan and China, which produces chemicals, the drug situation in the republic is of concern.

III.   Fight Against Illicit Drugs

1.            Anti-Narcotics Initiatives

        Emomali Rahmonov, President of the Republic of Tajikistan declared 1999 the year to strengthen the fight against terrorism, organized crime, drug business and corruption with the purpose to restore the superiority of the law in Tajikistan. In November 1998 a Master Plan developed jointly by the State Drug Control Commission and UNDCP was launched to organize state structures under an overall stategy to combat drug0related crime. A Narcotic Control Agency reporting solely to the President has been established with UN support and technical assistance. Also in cooperation with UNDCP, the State Drug Control Commission approved two regional programmes, first of them – improving coordination between Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan border forces in

        drug interdiction  and the second – the preparation of detailed maps of drug cultivation areas in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan.

2.         Drugs seized by Tajik law enforcement  agencies in 1998*:

            Declining seizure of opium and increased seizure of heroin (3,465 kg of opium and 60 kg of heroin seized in 1997) indicate a changing trend in drug trafficking towards heroin.

3.  Anti-Narcotics Operatins

            Under “Black Poppy-98” eradication operation 974 people were charged in 1998. There were 1,285 arrests of drug smugglers, resulting in 3,126 kg of drugs confiscated.

IV. Bilateral/Multilateral International Co-operation

            In 1998 16 Tajik specialists participated in US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)-funded regional training seminars in Hungary and Kyrgyzstan. The seminars focussed on basic law enforcement and border control.

            In September 1998, six Tajik customs and police officials participated in an INL-funded Regional Narcotics Interdiction Course and Training Workshop conducted in Kyrgyzstan.     

V.    Treatment and Rehabilitation.

            In Tajikistan, treatment and rehabilitation take place in republican hospital in Dushanbe and its branches in districts. All these hospitals contain only 65 patient-beds. In 1997, the total number of registered addicts stood at 2211. 50 percent of all addicts comprises young people up to 30. According to specialists, more than half of addicts uses the opiates, while every third addict uses the drugs of cannabis group.***

VI.              Miscellaneous : Arrest and Seizure Data

            Since 1994, Russian border guards servicing the Tajik-Afghan border have apprehended more than 800 armed couriers crossing the border and more than 7,5 tons of narcotics have been confiscated. In June –July 1999 Tajik police expropriated 16 kg of heroin from an automobile travelling to Uzbekistan. These narcotics of Afghan origin were headed for Russia. In August, the law enforcement agencies of Tajikistan destroyed more than 100 kg of seized drugs.****

 SOURCES AND/OR BASIS OF CALCULATION:

 *    Interpol, “Worldwide Report. Cannabis”, 1997.

**  US Department of State, International Narcotics Control Stategy Report.

      “Europe and Central Asia”, 1999.

*** The State Drug Control Commission of Tajkistan, “Drug trends in Tajkistan in   1997”, Summary Record of the Joint ECO-UNDCP Legal Training Workshop, Tehran, 1-5 March 1999.

**** “Narcotics Situation in Central Asia” by A.Zelichenko. The Times of Central Asia, 5 August and 30 September, 1999.

 REFERENCES:

 1.      UN ODCCP, "Global illicit drug trends", 1999.

2.      INCB, Report 1998.

3.      "The Times of Central Asia", 1999.

4.      Interpol, “Global Heroin Traffic”, 1997.

5.   Interpol, “Worldwide Report. Cannabis”, 1997.

6.   US Department of State, International Narcotics Control Stategy Report.

     “Europe and Central Asia”, 1999.

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

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