Uzbekistan

Laws and International Cooperation

As of 1997 Uzbekistan conformed to the 1988 United Nations (UN) Drug Convention requirement for criminalization of cultivation, production, distribution, sales, and transport of illegal drugs. Uzbekistan's policy on reducing drug use was just developing and was similar to what it had been under the Soviets. Uzbekistan lacked mutual assistance and extradition treaties as well as money laundering and clear asset-seizure laws. The Uzbek criminal code, including antinarcotics laws, lacked adequate safeguards by international standards. Federal and local [Page 825]officials were often corrupt. From 1997, the United States cooperated in the apprehension of Uzbek fugitives on its soil despite lack of extradition or legal assistance agreements. Tentative steps toward European Union (EU) aid also began in 1997, including the assignment of a German narcotics liaison officer, the professional liaison in central Asia. Uzbekistan was working with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in a regional UN International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) project to enhance interdiction in the Fergana Valley. Another UNDCP project involved establishment of a national drug intelligence capability. A project to develop a fungus to kill opium poppies began in 1997 and continued into 2009.

Uzbekistan succeeded in mostly eradicating its opium fields in the 1990s but trafficking resumed dramatically after the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001. Prices were low, borders were porous, worldwide demand was up, and Uzbekistan was centrally located on the drug routes. Drug trafficking was also a way out of poverty in a poor region.

A 2002 law to regulate production, transport, and use introduced some civil rights provisions but drug offenders usually had inadequate counsel and suffered duress. In the first half of 2004, 600 kilograms of drugs were seized, including 295.1 kilograms of heroin, twice the 2003 heroin total. Then, in the first half of 2008, heroin seizures in Uzbekistan exceeded 433 kilograms, and drug arrests doubled in a year.

Policy and Organization

Uzbekistan focuses on drug traffic rather than on drug addiction. Penalties for dealing drugs extend up to the death penalty. Human rights advocates claim that law enforcement officials sometimes plant drugs on members of specific religious and ethnic groups and require bribes by pretending to police drugs. The three drug control agencies—internal affairs, national security and customs—each have a specific drug section. Resources have been inadequate and all three agencies have had other, higher priority, missions than drug control. The agencies have been hampered by rivalries and lack of coordination despite the establishment of a National Drug Information Analytical Center. The center at times has been merely an additional, competing center. Drug education at the local enforcement level has been scarce.

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