Drugs Trade Collusion Prompts Police Watchdog Calls

To combat law enforcement agency collusion in Tajikistan’s drugs trade, observers suggest that a public watchdog should be given the power to monitor and control their activities.



The largest consignment of drugs in recent years was seized near Dushanbe last Sunday. Three Tajik nationals including a National Security Committee, NSC, major, attempted to transport over 144 kilogrammes of raw opium and around 53 kg of heroin from Afghanistan in their car.



This is the second time this month that an NSC officer has been found carrying narcotics. A similar incident occurred in early February when another NSC major was detained with one kg of heroin in his possession.



General Prosecutor Bobojon Bobohonov announced at a press conference on January 15 that 581 incidents of illegal drug-trafficking were registered last year and representatives of the police and national security agencies were involved in a great number of these cases.



“Moreover, some corrupted officials from these agencies act as protectors for drug dealers, trying to influence the course of criminal investigations,” he said.



NBCentralAsia political observer Shokirjon Hakimov suggests that the close-knit relationship between drug barons and law enforcement agencies is a consequence of the fact that many officers bribe their way into the service. They traffic drugs themselves or take bribes from drug barons to earn that money back.



“When they take up their jobs, which are poorly paid, corrupt people try to make up the cost of their employment,” he explained.



To solve the problem, Hakimov suggests that state police officers and national security agents should receive higher salaries; the recruitment policy in all law enforcement agencies should be more transparent and officials should be made accountable to the public.



The NSC and the state police obtained broad powers when Tajikistan’s civil war ended in the mid-Nineties and political scientist Abdugani Mamadazimov notes that there are still insufficient mechanisms that would enable the public to control them.



“The complete absence of public control over them has given corrupt officials [the freedom] to get involved in the drugs trade,” he said.



Mamadazimov proposes that a public watchdog should be set up to oversee the work of the law enforcement agencies. Its members should include the representatives of local councils and honest, recognised public figures.



(News Briefing Central Asia draws comment and analysis from a broad range of political observers across the region.)