Tajikistan’s Soldiers: What Have They Done with America’s Dogs?

Life for Tajikistan’s conscripts manning the drug-infested Afghanistan border is dismal. Frequent reports tell us they are cold, hungry and untrained (“recruits fire only nine shots over a 40-day” Russian-led training). But life for their dogs may be even worse, we now have learned thanks to Wikileaked American embassy cables.

For years, Washington has supplied Dushanbe with equipment to patrol the porous, 1,300-kilometer border, a notorious drug-smuggling route from Afghanistan to Russia. Part of that aid has included drug-detecting dogs. But a newly released cable says the dogs were used instead as watchdogs in freezing temperatures and bred for cash. When the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) caught wind of the abuse, they suspended the program and demanded any future donations be spayed and neutered “to preclude breeding for sale.” Some dogs just disappeared. 

The Border Guards cannot account for all the dogs provided, and post has previously suspected that local Border guards sold the pups of these dogs for personal profit. During October and November visits to the Bog and Bakhorat border posts, EmbOffs observed other INL-donated dogs posted outside in sub-zero temperatures to serve as watchdogs, which adversely affects their intended purpose of detecting narcotics. COMMENT: Post is deeply disturbed by the misuse of INL-provided dogs. While this project is designed to help fortify the border from the illicit narcotics transit, the Border Guards have made no sincere effort to integrate the dogs into their work program.

Soldiers’ living conditions leave a lot to be desired:

The dormitory at Bakhorat for enlisted soldiers, for example, consisted of approximately 30 beds, with pillows and blankets which appeared to exceed the ages of the soldiers. The dormitory did not have any windows; when asked if the soldiers got cold at night, the base commander replied "not yet." […] When asked where the soldiers bathe, the commander replied: "We find places; sometimes in the river."

Conscripts on the border have told EurasiaNet they earn only a few dollars per month, when paid, and often go to sleep hungry. Could this shed some light, however macabre, on the fate of the missing dogs?