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UNODC/ROCA and the Supreme Court of Uzbekistan signed Memorandum of Understanding
 On 15 May, the Memorandum of Understanding and Cooperation was signed between UNODC Regional Office for Central Asia and the Supreme Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan.
The Memorandum is build on the existing good working relationships established by UNODC/ ROCA with the Supreme Court as a result of the technical assistance provided to Uzbek judges within the the framework of the Global Legal Assistance Programme. ,The Memorandum is designed to deepen cooperation between ROCA and the Supreme Court in strengthening the judicial system of Uzbekistan through, among other activities, development and delivery the training courses aimed at enhancing judicial integrity and improving justice administration.
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Operation TARCET: prevent the smuggling of chemicals to Afghanistan
 On 12-13 May 2009, UNODC's Regional Office for Central Asia and the Country Office for Afghanistan convened a High Level Planning Session to launch Operation TARCET II, an anti-trafficking initiative to prevent the smuggling of chemicals to Afghanistan for use in the illicit manufacture of heroin. The aim of the session was to build on the successes achieved during Operation TARCET in 2008, review the results, experiences and lessons learned and launch further joint actions for preventing the smuggling of chemicals to Afghanistan within this operational framework. Specific law enforcement actions and timeframes were agreed to and activities in this regard will commence shortly..
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Heroin bonfire
 Nearly two tons of illicit narcotics were set ablaze in a large scale drug burning ceremony organized by the Uzbek National Security Service. James Callahan, Regional Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), took part in the celebration. The drugs, consisting of 501.2 kg of heroin and 1,104 kg of opium, were seized by Uzbek law enforcement agencies throughout 2008. A total of 1,711 kg of drugs were incinerated.
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Dramatic increase in seizures effected by uzbek law enforcement agencies
 2008 was a successful year for Uzbek law enforcement agencies in the field of countering opiate trafficking. Law enforcement agencies increased the total volume of opiates seized in the first nine months of 2008 nearly three-fold compared with 2007. Heroin seizures increased most dramatically by 489 per cent. In total, 1,151 kg of heroin and 995 kg of opium were seized. Although annual seizure totals are not yet available, UNODC estimates these figures will be over 1 ton for opium and 1.5 tons for heroin. If these estimates prove correct, 2008 will have produced the largest ever total annual heroin seizures and the largest ever total annual opiate seizure (in heroin equivalence).
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CARICC agreements enters into force
On 22 March 2009, the framework agreement on the establishment of the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre (CARICC) entered into force, thus opening a new page in the history of the Centre.
The entry in force follows the ratification of the CARICC Agreement by the parliaments of five of the CARICC countries (Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan). The fourth ratification instrument was placed with the depository - the MFA of Kazakhstan - on 20 February 2009. This allows CARICC to begin the transition from pilot phase to full fledged functionality.
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NATO-Russia council summarizes 2008 activities
 A coordination meeting on the training of law enforcement officers of the Central Asian states and Afghanistan in the field of countering the illicit drug trafficking was held on December 18 -19, 2008 in Vienna.
UNODC reported to donors and member states on the project implementation outputs in 2008, including the findings of the recently conducted independent interim project evaluation. In 2008, all twenty six Russia-NATO Council member states acted as project donors. In the course of the meeting, representatives from the beneficiary states reported on the project's positive impact on employees performance indicators, and noted that all large seizures of narcotic drugs carried out in the region had been initiated or conducted by officers trained in the framework of the project. One of Tajikistan's DCA employees was awarded a high government decoration which can be considered one of the qualitative indicators of the specialists' retraining.
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Join operations: trying out the regional cooperation mechanisms
In October 2008 field exercises were conducted in the framework of several UNODC projects coordinated by the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre (CARICC). The purpose of these exercises was to strengthen the capacity for implementing international operational activities among law enforcement agencies and to try out the regional mechanisms for conducting joint comprehensive operational interventions with the assistance of the network of authorized representatives (liaison officers) seconded to CARICC.
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Prevention of drug use: concepts, strategies and ways forward
 The International Conference on the on the same title was held on 3-5 December 2008 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The conference, hosted jointly by UNODC and the Government of Uzbekistan with financial support from UNESCO and UNICEF, sought to introduce new dimensions of and concepts for prevention to practitioners from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
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Operation TARCET debriefing
 On 21-23 October 2008, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's Regional Office for Central Asia together with the Afghanistan Country Office convened the Operation TARCET Debriefing which was hosted by the Turkish National Police in Izmir, Turkey.
Participants from 16 countries and seven international/regional organisations (CARICC, EC, Europol, INCB, ISAF and SECI) reviewed the results of the operation and provided recommendations for subsequent joint actions addressing the illicit flow of precursors used for the manufacture of heroin to Afghanistan.
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Opening of Border Post Facilities at Sari Gor
 On September 12, an international delewwwgation led by James Callahan, Regional Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), U.S. Embassy Charge d'Affaires Necia Quast, with the Chief of Staff for Tajikistan's Border Guard Forces Major General Sharaf Faizulloev, Head of Construction Major Mirov, Deputy Head of the International Department Captain Zarif Khakimov traveled to remote southern Tajikistan to dedicate the opening of the reconstructed border post facility at Sari Gor. This international cooperative project, one in a series, will help the Tajik border guards interdict the flow of illegal narcotics and enhance the overall security of Tajikistan's border with Afghanistan.
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Intelligence analysis training in CARICC
 On 8 - 19 September within the framework of the UNODC Project AD/RER/H22 Intelligence analysis training was organized for the staff of the Central Asian Regional Information and Coordination Centre (CARICC). The liaison officers from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, who are on secondment to CARICC, also participated in training.
The training was provided by Mr. M. Prljevic, intelligence analysis trainer from the UNODC project office in Belgrade.
The major purpose of the training was to provide the trainees with knowledge and basic practical skills on use of intelligence analysis techniques and methods developed by ANACAPA Sciences Inc.
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DONOR COORDINATION MEETING
UNODC Project Office in Kyrgyzstan partnered with EC BOMCA/CADAP in organising a donor coordination meeting in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan on 17 September 2008.
The meeting had border control, illicit drug trafficking and prison reform issues in its Agenda. Accordingly it joined together international organisations, as well as bilateral donors who are providing assistance in these areas to the Government of Kyrgyzstan. Representatives of EC, IOM, OSCE, GTZ, US and German Embassies, others expressed their views on relevant trends in Kyrgyzstan in line with the findings of the assessment missions carried out by different organisations and briefed on ongoing and planned assistance to the Government of Kyrgyzstan. Discussion was useful in sharing information on priorities of different international partners working in the country and in identifying areas for possible cooperation. It was agreed that assessment mission findings would be shared with all interested agencies/donors in Kyrgyzstan so to ensure continuous information exchange among international partners.
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UNODC promotes the most effective HIV prevention method among IDUs in Central Asia and Azerbaijan
 On August 1-5, 2008 UNODC conducted the Regional workshop in Bishkek (Kyrgyzstan Republic) on the Legal and Managerial Aspects of the Implementation of Opioid Substitution Treatment (OST) in Central Asia and Azerbaijan with joint support from CARHAP/DFID, CAPACITY/USAID, GFATM, OSCE, UNDP and WHO.
The aim of the workshop was to initiate the process of implementation of OST in Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, and advocate for scaling up the access to OST in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Its objective was to raise awareness of decision makers of legal and managerial issues of OST introduction/scaling up, its effectiveness as a method of drug dependence treatment as regards medical status and social domains of life of individual drug users, their families and communities.
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LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS DISCUSSED HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS
The workshop «Promoting Law Enforcement and Judicial Co-operation among Source, Transit and Destination Countries to Combat Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling to and from Central Asia» was held in Tashkent in May. About 70 participants, representing law enforcement, migration, judicial authorities and/or NGOs from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Thailand Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, the Russian Federation, Israel, Turkey, UAE, UK and USA as well as senior experts of the IOM, UNODC, OSCE (including ODIHR), UNHCR, UNICEF and CSTO took part in the workshop.
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Counteracting human trafficking in Uzbekistan
Seminar "Counteracting human trafficking in the Republic of Uzbekistan" was held on 30-31 May in Tashkent. The event has been organized by United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Central Asia with support of the Uzbek government.
The seminar is directed on further improvement of national legislation, strengthening interaction of state structures and non-governmental organizations in Uzbekistan in the field of fight human trafficking, and studying international experience in this sphere.
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UNODC'c Satellite Session at the HIV/AIDS Conference in Moscow
 The Second Eastern Europe and Central Asia AIDS Conference (EECAAC) took place in Moscow, Russia, on 3-5 May 2008. The conference invited more than 2000 people and provided unprecedented opportunity for dialogue and interaction among political and community leaders, scientists and other researchers, people living with HIV and representatives of civil society from across the region in response to the challenges of the AIDS crisis. Accelerating Access to HIV Prevention, Treatment and Care for All" was adopted as the official motto of the conference.
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Introductory Workshop for Mobile Deployment Team Officers
UNODC conducted introductory workshop on operative search activities for the newly established Mobile Deployment Team at the Anti-drug Smuggling Department of the Ministry of Interior of the Tajikistan. Experts from the UNODC, DCA and Russian Border Guards shared experience in operational search activities along the border areas. Border control, corruption prevention, description of drugs and precursor and intelligence analysis topics were in the focus.
Positive and negative experience of the DCA, RBFG was learned as well as methods of informants' recruitment and possible ways of incentives. The topic on measures for corruption prevention and corruption risk analysis was thoroughly described during the workshop.
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Intelligence Analysis Training for the Border Forces
20 officers from the Tajik Border Forces were trained during Intelligence Analysis workshop organized by UNODC on 28-30 April in Dushanbe.. How to organize an information-analytical activities in the Border Forces, what are main principles and criteria of effectiveness of information-analytical activities and its assessment; current, perspective and target planning of analytical activities; how to forecast situation development on the border, data collection and information analysis methods were discussed during the
training.
Main goal of the workshop was to strengthen border control related investigative and intelligence analysis capacities of border guards at selected arias of the Tajik-Afghan border.
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A briefing on implementation of CARICC pilot phase was held at UNODC Office for Central Asia
 TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, 23 April 2008 (UNODC) - The Central Asia Regional Information and Coordination Centre (CARICC) will continue promoting the exchange of criminal intelligence and effective cross-border operations.
A special meeting of CARICC with its partners and donors, Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), governments of France, Germany, Turkey, Russia, the UK and the USA was held in Tashkent (Uzbekistan) on April 23, 2008 where the reappointed director of CARICC, Beksultan Sarsekov made a short briefing on implementation of the project pilot phase in Central Asia.
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NATO-Russian Council Heads of State agree to make UNODC-implemented Project Permanent
On 14-15 April the donor Nations and the UNODC held an expert meeting on counter-narcotics training techniques and methodologies. Senior counter-narcotics experts and UNODC officials gathered in Brussels to review the NRC Project on Counter-Narcotics Training of Afghan and Central Asian Personnel activities and to plan and coordinate the Project's training courses, curricula, an overall strategy for the coming years.
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Ratification and implementation of conventions and protocols
The lower house of Parliament of Kazakhstan on 19 March 2008 approved the Law of Ratification of the United Nations Convention against Corruption, and submitted it the Senate, upper house of Parliament for its approval.
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ROCA organized press events to launch INCB Annual Report
On 4 and 5 March press conferences devoted to the INCB Annual Report launch were organized by UNODC jointly with partners in five Central Asian countries. In Kazakhstan with Drug Control Committee, donor's representatives - Ambassador of the USA, Ambassador of Italy took part in it.
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UNODC organised a AML/CFT Workshop in Ashgabat
On 4-5 March, 2008 UNODC jointly with World Bank, OSCE, EAG and IMF organized a multi-donor workshop on "The Role and Function of the Financial Intelligence Unit" for relevant Turkmen officials at the President Hotel in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. The Agenda for this workshop included AML/CFT experts from various countries who presented their experiences in building an AML/CFT Framework and FIU in their countries.
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UNODC ROCA hosted a Law Enforcement Donor Coordination Meeting in Turkmenistan
On 25 February 2008, ROCA organized a Law Enforcement Donor Coordination Meeting in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan to review year-end results of technical assistance provided by various donors and coordinate future activities. The meeting was attended by the representative of the Russian Federation, Turkey, British, USA Embassies; the UNHCR, IOM, OSCE,WB,TICA, BOMCA-CADAP program.
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UNODC participated at the NATO-Russia Council meeting
On 14 January 2008, UNODC Regional Representative for Central Asia participated at the NATO-Russia Council's (NRC) Executive Steering Meeting to review the NRC report on the results of the first phase of the XAC/I97 project and plans for the project extension which will cover 2008-2009.|
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