State's Chamberlin at Drug Conference in Tashkent Oct. 20

Intercontinental Hotel
Tashkent, Uzbekistan
October 20, 2000, 2:00pm

PRESS ROUND TABLE WITH AMBASSADOR WENDY J. CHAMBERLIN, PRINCIPAL
DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF INTERNATIONAL NARCOTICS AND LAW
ENFORCEMENT AFFAIRS (INL)

AMBASSADOR CHAMBERLIN: I thought I would begin by providing you with a
few observations on the international conference on "Enhancing
Security and Stability in Central Asia: An Integrated Approach to
Counter Drugs, Organized Crime and Terrorism." The sessions have
covered a wide number of issues of great interest to us. Participants
also came from a number of regions including Europe, Central Asia, the
United States, the Arab states and even Southeast Asia as Thailand was
represented. There were also a host of international organizations.

I was most pleased to see the participation of NGOs [nongovernmental
organizations], and the reason we were so pleased to see NGOs
participating in this conference was because we believe that they are
an important part of any solution. My assessment is that there was a
general consensus about the problem. First, there was a real concern
about the enormous increase in the production of opium in Afghanistan
over the last few years. Secondly, the consequent drug trafficking
through Central Asia is a destabilizing factor. It undermines good
governance. It contributes to corruption, and it absorbs the fragile
law enforcement institutions in Central Asia. Third, the profits from
the narcotics industry sustain terrorist groups, which, in turn,
further threaten legitimate governments in Central Asia and their
stability. Fourth, all of us, not just Central Asian countries, have a
major stake in stability, and therefore a major stake in resolving
these problems created by narco-trafficking. And fifth and finally,
the root of the problem of narco-trafficking and terrorism in Central
Asia is poor economic stability and lack of opportunity for the local
populations.

These are the problems - what are some of the solutions suggested and
did the Conference produce a general consensus about the solutions? I
think so. First, economic development is a requirement. Transparent
government, access for all citizens to the means of (improving)
quality of life - are a part of this important solution. But economic
development/alternative development to narcotics cultivation isn't the
only solution. It has to be accompanied by good law enforcement. And
the fundamental element that must exist in order for any of these
nations to develop good law enforcement is the political will of their
governments to take the necessary steps to develop the capacities of
their law enforcement agencies, and to develop the capacities of their
criminal justice system, and then to implement them. So economic
development and the development of good law enforcement, good
government institutions, good criminal justice institutions, do go
hand in hand.

I'll be happy to take some of your questions.

NEW YORK TIMES: If you look at these governments, the five governments
throughout Central Asia, and you try to evaluate their political will
to develop, say good law enforcement - can you comment on the status
of the five countries perhaps a little bit more?

AMB. CHAMBERLIN: First, acknowledging that there are wide differences
among the different countries, I would like to say that we have
experienced very good cooperation with the host of this conference,
Uzbekistan. Uzbekistan took the initiative to suggest, over a year
ago, that the Six Plus Two political process turn to counter
narcotics, as well. And we believe that the Six Plus Two process,
which I can explain in greater detail in a minute, has some promise
for improving the capacities of all the neighboring countries of
Afghanistan. The "Two" in the Six Plus Two is the United States and
Russia. The "Six" are China, which has a small border with
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Of the Six, only Turkmenistan has elected not to sign on to a Regional
Action Plan that the eight countries of the Six Plus Two helped to
formulate. So, I think that gets to the second part of your question
...

UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL: I actually have two questions for you. The
first question: yesterday at the Conference, Mr. Arlacchi, expressed
the opinion that the volume of narcotics being transported through the
territory of Tajikistan, the northern parts of Tajikistan, has
decreased. And, there are new routes for them to transport their
drugs. Do you agree with this statement or not?

And the second question is: Uzbekistan has changed its policy and now
is pursuing a new policy towards the Taleban. Last month the Minister
of Foreign Affairs stated that Uzbekistan is ready to open its borders
with Afghanistan under certain conditions. Would you comment on this?

AMB. CHAMBERLIN: I'm not sure I'm qualified to answer your first
question. In a general sense, what we have found, what our law
enforcement in the United States has found, is that traffickers are
always, constantly, almost weekly, sometimes daily, devising new ways,
new routes, new methods of trafficking - all as part of the evasion
of effective law enforcement. Logically, if law enforcement and border
control enforcement were tightening up along the Tajikistan border
with Afghanistan, one would expect to see diversion of the trafficking
routes. The United States has not yet observed any dramatic
enhancement along the Tajik-Afghan border. It's a huge border. The
needs are great, and we certainly want to work with the Tajikistan
government, in order to help them strengthen their law enforcement. In
fact the one small part of the United States Government's budget that
I deal with - we have made a commitment to contribute $500,000
dollars to strengthen Tajikistan's law enforcement over this next
year. We've not yet decided how or to which institution that will go
to, but we will do so shortly.

Once again we have been impressed by the political will of the Uzbek
government to fight narcotics smuggling and other types of smuggling.
We contribute as well to developing Uzbek border control and law
enforcement. But Uzbek foreign policy is a sovereign matter for the
Uzbek government. And we are confident that any policy steps that the
Uzbek government takes will be consistent with their concerns to stop
narcotic, terrorist and other kinds of smuggling across their borders.

INTER-FAX: Yesterday at the conference and today as well, there has
been talk about a new attitude towards the Taleban in Afghanistan.
There were arguments that the people in Afghanistan have to grow drugs
because they have nothing else to live on. There were calls to render
economic aid to this country. But everybody knows well that the
Taleban, whose position on terrorism and extremism we all know,
controls the majority of the country. Wouldn't the stimulation of the
economy of Afghanistan be a kind of support of the Taleban movement?

AMB. CHAMBERLIN: Let me be quite frank with you. The first question
that we were asked was to rank the attitudes of the governments. If
the question had included the Taleban, which, in fact, is not a
government, we clearly would rank their political will and commitment
to law enforcement and commitment to stopping narcotics cultivation
and trafficking very, very low.

Taleban leaders have made statements in the past that they were
opposed to narcotics cultivation and narcotics trade. But the facts
belie this. Prior to the creation of Taleban in 1994, opium
cultivation in the areas that the Taleban have under their control was
at a steady 20,000 hectares. When the Taleban captured Kandahar, poppy
cultivation in that area immediately doubled. With Taleban military
campaigns in 1998 and 1999, poppy cultivation again shot up to over
51,000 hectares. Today in the year 2000 we estimate they have again
hugely increased to 64,000 hectares. These are U.S. government
figures, but let me point out that our friends and allies and others
who collect information on areas under the Taleban think we are very
conservative. So I must allow that even these figures may be an
understatement.

So what these data show is that there is no effort on the side of the
Taleban to stop the cultivation or to keep it in check. In fact, there
is evidence that they profit from both cultivation and trafficking by
charging a tax. OK, now I am coming to your question (laughter).

In order to have economic development, alternative development work to
narcotics production - in order for that to be successful, you have
to have a regime that is not encouraging poppy cultivation at the same
time. In order to have alternative development work to discourage
poppy cultivation you have to have at the same time strong law
enforcement. And we do not see this at all in Afghanistan.

But in conclusion, I fully believe that the economic situation must be
addressed for any long-term solution to narcotics production in
Afghanistan or anywhere else where narcotics are produced.

You know the United States gives enormous amounts of money for very
successful alternative development projects in a number of countries
in the world. And there have been some stunning successes. Thailand
comes to mind where opium production is practically zero; it is
negligible today. And those very successful alternative development
projects in Thailand didn't really begin to work until the King of
Thailand began to work with them very closely on his own agricultural
projects. We had been funding for years alternative development in
Bolivia and Peru with tepid success. And a few years ago both
governments, and particularly Bolivia, really got behind the program
of eradication coupled with alternative development and the reduction
in cocaine production in those two countries has been stunning.

So I think the answer is economic development and alternative
development, but at the same time law enforcement. And neither halves
of these two solutions will work without the political will of the
government.

THE ECONOMIST: I have two questions. You put so much stress on the
political will of the Uzbek government. Given the system as it is
today, don't you see a danger that they might actually overdo this
process? As we know from the human rights report, people had drugs
planted on them and were arrested on those charges. How much of a
problem do you think that would be?

Secondly regarding the data. Yesterday Mr. Arlacchi also gave us some
figures, however, in hectares but I can't quite compare it to acres,
but he did say that actually the cultivation was down by 10% and you
were saying that it increased.

AMB. CHAMBERLIN: What, in Afghanistan?

THE ECONOMIST: Yes, in Afghanistan and I am wondering whether there
are any discrepancies in the figures.

AMB. CHAMBERLIN: Well, I'll stick to the U.S. numbers. With regard to
your first question, you are quite right. The needs of law enforcement
and the threats that at times terrorism can present to a government
must also (lead it) to take into account the important needs to
protect the society, and human rights within that society as well.

So I will state that the fight against extremism, the fight against
narco-trafficking, and the fight against organized crime can also be
waged without abusing the human rights and the freedom of citizens.
This was an important part of Secretary Albright's message to the
Uzbek government when she visited here last April. It continues to be
the cornerstone of our policies everywhere.

UPI: The Austrian Minister [Benita Ferrero-Waldner, OSCE chairwoman,
Austrian Foreign Minister] said that Austria would render Uzbekistan
additional aid. As a result of this conference, will the United States
render additional aid to Uzbekistan? And the second question. Have any
of the representatives from the Central Asian states given you some
crazy ideas about combating narco-trafficking and what is your
attitude towards them? For example, a Russian governor proposed
introducing life imprisonment. Has anything like this been suggested
here at the conference?

AMB. CHAMBERLIN: Yes - to answer your first question - the United
States Government's assistance to Uzbekistan in counter-narcotics and
law enforcement will continue. And we look for ways of increasing it
in coming years. Norma Reyes, who works in our office, can give you
precise statistics on assistance to Uzbekistan.

MS. REYES: This fiscal year we are funding 14 programs for Uzbekistan
in law enforcement and narcotics. We will also be buying equipment.
Last year we bought nine Jeeps for the Customs Service in Uzbekistan.
They were delivered in August of this year. We also have funded some
projects on prosecutor training not just for police officers but also
for judicial assistance. And we also have some projects against the
trafficking of women and children. You may have noticed down in the
(hotel) lobby today that there was an announcement for training that
was to be conducted in the Crystal Room. This was a course that the
State Department sponsored. FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation]
agents were teaching prosecutors and the police of Uzbekistan
techniques to investigate organized crime.

AMB. CHAMBERLIN: To answer the second part of your question, you
should note that I am not a law enforcement official by career path. I
am a diplomat. So I am not going to comment on the internal workings
of a government's decision on how it sentences its criminals.

UPI: Could you specify how much more the United States will allocate
to Uzbekistan?

MS. REYES: I would say that it is at least a million dollars a year.

AMB. CHAMBERLIN: But that's just in the INL [International Narcotics
and Law Enforcement Affairs] budget. In addition we are providing
three million dollars for border control.

UPI: Annually?

MS. REYES: During this coming year only. It is a project linking the
Central Asian countries - a communications link - and each country
that participates will receive three million dollars in equipment and
support. And that is not just for law enforcement, counter-narcotics
and organized crime, but covers a broad spectrum of uses. It basically
aims at border control and all of the issues that this involves.

BBC: There have been frequent calls over the last few months,
certainly, by the region's leaders asking the international community
to not just acknowledge but also take actions on the problems in the
region. Do you think that is a fair criticism, and if so why has the
international community been so slow to tangibly react?

AMB. CHAMBERLIN: I am not going to speak for the international
community. I think some of the comments made today - or rather the
committed, positive comments made today by the EU representative --
indicate that there is a growing concern and willingness to commit to
this area.

But I will speak for the United States. You can see from some of the
statistics that Norma has just given you that we are stepping up our
bilateral assistance, not only to Uzbekistan, but these are paralleled
in other states in the area as well. As a multilateral initiative we
are now deeply involved in the "6+2" process. And I will provide you a
status report on where that stands.

Our experts in May developed an action plan for strengthening law
enforcement and criminal justice systems among the Six. In September
our ministers approved this Regional Action Plan (RAP), except for
Turkmenistan. Now each of the Six are developing a needs assessment,
and a report on what international assistance they are already
receiving in these two areas. These reports are due November 1.

Iran nominated the United States to serve as coordinator for the
Regional Action Plan. We take this responsibility seriously. What that
means for us is that we will advocate in the international donor
community funding of the programs that will emerge as part of this
process.

UPI: Recently Le Monde and other newspapers had stories that Russia
was aiding the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan based in Tajikistan to
create tensions in Central Asia and to be able to influence the Uzbek
government. Perhaps you have information that confirms the report's
accuracy? Do you think such a thing is possible?

AMB. CHAMBERLIN: I am highly skeptical of that story. I am not Russian
and I can't speak for the Russian Government. But I can tell you that
I have just come from Moscow where I participated in talks on Central
Asia with the Russian delegation. And we found the Russian government
to be very concerned about narco-trafficking and the way profits from
narco-trafficking support terrorist groups in this area.

But I am way beyond my brief. You'd better pose that question more
appropriately to a Russian government official.

Thank you.