Tajik Villagers Relocate Away From Afghan Border

Residents of five villages in the southern Shuroabad district have decided to leave their homes and move to somewhere where they will not be vulnerable to raids by criminal groups smuggling drugs from Afghanistan.

Analyst Ahmad Ibrohim says the Tajik border guards are unable to protect these areas adequately. They have no helicopters and are forced to walk long distances over difficult terrain. They are also at risk from the landmines laid in the Soviet area.

At a recent meeting with colleagues from other Central Asian states, Sharaf Faizulloev, chief of staff of the border guards service, acknowledged that his forces were woefully short of the modern equipment and infrastructure they needed to patrol and monitor the frontier.

The audio programme, in Russian and Tajik, went out on national radio stations in Tajikistan, as part of IWPR project work funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.