UN DRUGS CONTROL OFFICE PUBLISHES ASSESSMENT ON UZBEKISTAN

United Nations Office For Drugs Control And Crime Prevention

Regional Office For Central Asia

Common Country Assessment Of Uzbekistan

Statement of Mr Slawomir Redo, Senior Crime Prevention and Criminal
Justice Expert, Regional ODCCP Office for Central Asia, Tashkent, Uzbekistan

The Regional ODCCP Office contributed to the report on Common Country
Assessment of Uzbekistan analysis of three interrelated problems;
drugs, organized crime and terrorism (Chapter 6 "Security").

TASHKENT. The problem of drugs in Uzbekistan is addressed from two
perspectives: drug abuse and illicit drug trafficking. Data on drug
seizures, quoted in the report, show a steady increase of heroin
seized in Uzbekistan. This is not only an indicator of a trend in
illicit trafficking market, but also of possible change in drug
consumption pattern in the country. The data of seizures has to be
interpreted also in the context of law enforcement activities in,
across and outside Uzbekistan, particularly on its border with Tajikistan.

Tightening border control between Uzbekistan and Afghanistan has
apparently shifted illicit drug traffic to border crossings with
Tajikistan. In comparison with year 1999, in year 2000 Uzbek law
enforcement agencies have seized twice as much of heroin equivalent.

Data on drug addicts are equivocal. While it points to an increase of
their number, in some estimates almost tenfold, it also shows that
there is a need to conduct a more accurate epidemiological assessment
of drug, abuse in Uzbekistan. The Regional ODCCP Office has started to
implement a project on assessment of drug abuse in Uzbekistan and in
the whole Central Asia region.

The chapter emphasizes that poverty drives young people, especially
women into serving as drug couriers. Indeed, while illicit drug
trafficking may be the most common form of organized crime in
Uzbekistan, poverty also drives people into other firms of organized
crime. The chapter deals with two particular forms of such crime:
trafficking in people and firearms; as those that may be alarming for
Uzbekistan.

Migration, specifically irregular migration, as a part of which women
leave the country for the purpose of sexual exploitation, has been a
problem for some time in Central Asia. Trafficking in people is a part
of reduced human security.

Another problem results from a typical bond between trafficking in
drugs and firearms. Quite substantive seizures of firearms and
explosives, quoted in the chapter, document that the situation in
Uzbekistan is worsening in this field. The Regional ODCCP Office is
ready to render quickly the assistance; in assessing those crime
trends, and their implications.

Concerning terrorism, the last part of the chapter on "Security" notes
the commitment of the Government of Uzbekistan to deal vigorously with
any organizations that undermine its security, and the security of
other States. In October last year, in the "Inter-Continental"
Tashkent, the Regional ODCCP Office and the Austrian Chair-in -Office
of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe convened an
interational conference which. inter alia, dealt with counteracting
terrorism in Central Asia and beyond.

The Regional ODCCP Office has an active interest in these problems,
which require further inter-agency efforts. The Common Country
Assesment contains a shared analysis that represents a valid starting
point for an integrated planning of activity. We declare our
determination in keeping supporting the Uzbek government and society
in dealing with the new challenges to the security, and in improving
the coordination of efforts among all the international actors.