Eurasia Insight:
TURKMENISTAN'S NIYAZOV IMPLICATED IN DRUG SMUGGLING
Rustem Safronov: 3/29/02

A German media report claims Turkmenistan's leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, has engaged in systematic narcotics trafficking, and has forged ties with poppy producers in Afghanistan. Opposition leaders are trying to utilize the allegations in their ongoing effort to undermine Niyazov's authority.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Central Asia has developed into a drug trafficking hub for poppy products grown in neighboring Afghanistan and Pakistan. A United Nations Drug Control Program report published in 2000 said that 50 percent of drugs consumed in Western Europe are trafficked through Central Asian states. In addition, authorities say Islamic radicals have reportedly utilized illicit trafficking income to finance terrorist operations.

Cutting off the flow of drugs through Central Asia is viewed by the US-led anti-terrorism coalition as one of the keys to the region's stabilization. The possibility that trafficking operations enjoy government backing, and possibly even direct official involvement, has ominous implications for Central Asian stabilization efforts.

In a March 21 report, the German news outlet Deutsche Welle quoted a former Turkmen political prisoner as saying that Niyazov and other top officials were involved in smuggling operations at Ashgabat airport. The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he had shared a prison cell with Maj. Vitaly Usachev, who had headed the airport border guards unit.

In 1997, the Deutsche Welle source alleged, Usachev found hundreds of kilograms of narcotics stored in a cargo container at the airport. The container had arrived from Afghanistan and was to be temporarily housed in a Turkmen government storage facility that is guarded by national security forces and is exempt from customs inspection.

Following procedures, Usachev ordered the contraband to be confiscated, filed a report and turned the evidence over to state security (KNB) agents at the airport. In what appears to be a setup by the KNB, Usachev was arrested that same day for possession of narcotics. While in prison he was visited by the then head of the border guards, Gen. Akhmurad Kabulov who asked him to be patient while he personally pleaded Usachev's case to Niyazov. Soon thereafter Usachev was sentenced to death and shot.

In the same report, Oraz Saryiev, Deutsch Welle's correspondent, reported that the consulates of Turkmenistan in the Afghan cities of Herat and Mazar-i-Sharif, which opened during the Taliban era, were utilized to facilitate narco-trafficking. The report also claimed that Niyazov established ties with Taliban leaders, and with terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden.

Turkmen opposition leaders, in particular former Foreign Minister Avdy Kuliev, have long asserted that the Turkmen leadership was engaged in trafficking. Kuliev estimates that officials help smuggle approximately 80 tons of drugs annually, primarily heroin. The former head of Turkmenistan's Central Bank, Khudaiberdy Orazov, corroborates Kuliev's assessment, adding that trafficking tonnage could be as high as 120 tons. [For background see www.erkin.net].

According to Kuliev, the basement of the building that formerly housed the Central Committee of the Communist Party is a primary storage facility for narcotics. Originally used to store narcotics confiscated by the authorities, Kuliev claims it is now used to warehouse narcotics the government is trafficking.

In an interview with EurasiaNet, another opposition leader, Boris Shikhmuradov, contended that Turkmenistan's narco-traffic is under the control of the state's security apparatus, the KNB, with the tacit approval of Niyazov. Shikhmuradov relates that in 1997, concerned with drug-related corruption within the KNB, the head of the customs service in Kushka detailed his concerns in a report which he delivered to one of Niyazov's advisors. Soon thereafter, Niyazov rebuked the head of the country's custom service, Habibullah Durdiev, and demanded that he remove the Kushka official. Ultimately, Durdiev was demoted and the Kushka official's whereabouts are unknown.

In recent weeks, Niyazov, citing widespread KNB corruption, has carried out a purge of the state security apparatus. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Niyazov reportedly was angered by the security apparatus' inability to prevent a series of top-level defections of former government leaders to the political opposition. But one political analyst who specializes on Turkmenistan said Niyazov's purge was possibly a preemptive strike against a conspiracy to oust him from power. "There is a lot of talk that they [state security officials] were preparing a coup. They supposedly gathered a lot of compromising materials [on Niyazov]," the source told EurasiaNet.

Following up on the Deutsche Welle report, Shikhmuradov - who, like Kuliev, once served as Niyazov's foreign minister - told EurasiaNet of another narcotics trafficking incident involving Niyazov.

According to Shikhmuradov, the incident occurred in 1998. Border guards in the town of Marushak near the Afghan border detected a convoy that they believed to be transporting a significant quantity of drugs. Upon being informed of the border guards' pursuit of the convoy, Niyazov reportedly dispatched an attack helicopter to destroy the border guard unit in pursuit of the convoy. Mission accomplished, Shikhmuradov alleged that the Turkmen press portrayed the event as another example of border guards dying in the struggle to contain traffickers.

Despite recent purges within the KNB, some observers contend the overhaul is dressing which will affect the ability of state agencies to carry out trafficking activities. However, the Deutsche Welle and other reports of official Turkmen involvement in drug smuggling are sure to attract international community scrutiny.

Editor’s Note: Rustem Safronov, political analyst and journalist, is a frequent contributor to the BBC's Russian Service and Voice of America's Eurasian Service. He has written extensively about Central Asia, including a chapter on "Islam in Turkmenistan" for The Center for Political & Strategic Studies' book "Islam in Central Asia." He produced two documentaries about Turkmenistan for Russian State Television.