Kyrgyzstan: Drug users find a "krysha" in the "yama"

Erin Finnerty: 10/04/07

Sitting on a bench near Bishkek's largest needle exchange site, a local drug user describes how five years ago he was busted by the police for possession of heroin. Instead of going to prison, though, he found a new dealer: the officer who caught him.

The policeman gave his phone number and suggested the user buy from him. In the years since, this officer has been the user's source for the 3-4 grams of heroin he goes through each day.

"They'll bring it right to me," the man said.

According to a recent survey of drug users in Bishkek, 36 percent of respondents said they regularly buy illicit drugs from law enforcement officers. The survey, in which 250 drug users participated, was conducted by Right to Life, a Bishkek civic group that supports people with chemical dependency. Respondents answered questions about different aspects of their habit, including who their suppliers were. [Right to Life has received funding from the Open Society Institute. EurasiaNet operates under OSI's auspices.]

Police will recruit clients at a "yama" – literally meaning "pit" in Russian, but which has become a local slang term for a place where users gather to buy and inject heroin – said Aibar Sultangaziyev, the manager at Right to Life who conducted the survey. "They [police] set up a stakeout – a watchman – and when drug users get to the exit with drugs they stop them," Sultangaziyev said. "They take money from them and afterwards they propose, 'how about you don't go there anymore, and [instead] buy from me?'"

Central Asia is a major transit area for drug traffickers moving their product from Afghanistan to markets in Russia and the West. In responding to this reality, donor nations and organizations have focused on strengthening the capabilities of Kyrgyz law enforcement agencies. But given the lucrative nature of the drug trade, combined with the region's weak economies and low wages, keeping law-enforcement agencies clean is a major challenge.

According to Bakyt Matmusayev, deputy head of the Interior Ministry's drug control office, an average policeman's salary in the capital is about $100 per month. "Every family has its bad apples," Matmusayev said, when asked whether police sell drugs, "but in the absence of facts we can't say anything."

The lack of official statistics on police involvement in the drug trade extends beyond national structures. Ugo Enea, Project Coordinator for the local United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), declined to comment on the Right to Life survey because UNODC had no data on the subject.

UNODC works with the Kyrgyz government to fight corruption among local authorities, particularly related to illicit drugs and organized crime, Enea said. However, he continued, his organization was "not in a position to fight this problem" of police selling drugs, given the number of law enforcement corruption issues it must cover.

The link between government structures and the drug trade is alleged to extend far beyond the cop on the beat. A February 2006 article by Erica Marat in The China and Eurasia Forum Quarterly traced how Central Asian drug trade networks have built on regional influence to establish a presence in state structures, including winning seats in parliament and posts in other government bodies.

"In Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan criminal elements engaged in drug dealership and other spheres of the shadow economy penetrate state structures, making efforts to combat illicit businesses impossible," Marat wrote. At the same time, Marat argued that Kyrgyzstan's greater openness and more developed civic groups put Bishkek in better position than neighboring states to address the problem.

Sultangaziyev said drug users remain highly vulnerable to police manipulation. "If the user doesn't have any money, he'll gladly give any information" in return for drugs, he said. "I know there were even cases when people wanted to go for treatment. The policeman was absolutely not interested in treatment," because "he'd lose the client."

Enea said there are strategies for combating police involvement in the drug trade that have been effective in other parts of the world, particularly enforcing strict procedures during drug seizures. "It's very easy for a police officer to take some drugs from a big amount," he said.

The Kyrgyz government is "very open" to addressing issues of drug corruption, Enea added. "They are ready to cooperate."

Ironically, the holes in the law enforcement net can actually be advantageous to some drug users. The Bishkek heroin user explained that his police officer provided protection from harassment by other law enforcement officials. He now works for his dealer as a "middleman," selling small amounts to others. If he or his clients are arrested, he calls his police contact for help and the matter is resolved outside the law through a negotiated fee.

"For a user, this system is an all-around plus," the drug user said.

Editor's Note: Erin Finnerty is a Bishkek-based freelance writer and a consultant on public health issues.

Posted October 4, 2007 © Eurasianet