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Cablegate: Bangladesh Incsr Draft - Part I

This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 DHAKA 006044

SIPDIS

JUSTICE FOR OIA, AFMLS AND NDDS,
TREASURY FOR FINCEN
DEA FOR OILS AND OFFICE OF DIVERSION CONTROL
STATE FOR INL, SA
NEW DEHLI FOR DEA

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: SNAR BG
SUBJECT: BANGLADESH INCSR DRAFT - PART I

REF: STATE 209558

Bangladesh

I. Summary

Because of its geographic location in the midst of major drug
producing and exporting countries, Bangladesh is used by
trafficking organizations as a transit point. Seizures of
heroin, phensidyl (a codeine-based, highly addictive cough
syrup produced in India), and pathedine (an injectable opiate
with medical application as an anesthesia) point to growing
narcotics abuse in Bangladesh. Phensidyl is popular because
of its low price and widespread availability. While
unconfirmed reports circulate of opium and cannabis
cultivation along the border with Burma and cannabis
cultivation in the southern delta region, there is no
evidence that Bangladesh is a significant producer or
exporter of narcotics. The Bangladesh government (BDG)
officials charged with controlling and preventing illegal
substance trafficking lack training, equipment, continuity of
leadership and other resources to detect and interdict the
flow of drugs. Moreover, there is minimal coordination among
these agencies. Corruption at all levels of government, and
in particular law enforcement, hampers the country's drug
interdiction efforts. Bangladesh is a party to the 1988 UN
Drug Convention.

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II. Status of Country

There are unsubstantiated allegations of opium and cannabis
production in the Bandarban District along the Burmese border
and cannabis production in the southern silt-island ("char")
region. The country's porous borders make Bangladesh an
attractive transfer point for drugs transiting the region.
There are no reports of production, trading or transit of
precursor chemicals in Bangladesh.

III. Country Actions Against Drugs in 2004

Policy Initiatives. The Department of Narcotics Control's
(DNC) counternarcotics policy initiatives and program
activities are seriously hampered by the ineffectiveness of
the National Narcotics Control Board (NNCB), the highest
governmental body, to fulfill the objectives of the Narcotics
Control Act (NCA). Article 5 of the NCA directs the Board to
formulate policies and monitor the production, supply, and
use of illegal drugs in Bangladesh. The 19-member NNCB, made
of up of 11 ministers, seven appointed members, and the DNC
Director General, is charged to meet quarterly: but only a
single meeting was held in 2005, the first since 2003. There
is still no master plan for combating drug trafficking and
abuse in Bangladesh.

The BDG and USG signed a Letter of Agreement (LOA) in
September 2002 to provide equipment and forensic technical
assistance to the DNC and its central chemical laboratory.
This training and technical assistance is complete. The LOA
also provided for training, via the U.S. DOJ, to law
enforcement personnel involved in counternarcotics
activities. An amendment to the LOA for an increase in funds
for training and equipment was signed in 2004.

Accomplishments. The Department of Narcotics Control is the
BDG agency most responsible for counternarcotics efforts in
Bangladesh. It is housed within the Ministry of Home Affairs
and is currently under the leadership of an acting Director
General who has been in office for less than a year. The
organization is chronically under-funded, understaffed,
under-trained, and suffers from frequent personnel turnover.
The BDG completed construction of the first drug treatment
and rehabilitation facility, a 250 bed hospital funded
entirely by the BDG. A 2005 law introduced quality of care
requirements governing staffing and facilities for addiction
treatment centers. The BDG also targeted demand reduction,
increasing anti-drug public service messages.
Law Enforcement Efforts. Law enforcement units engaged in
counternarcotics operations include the police, the DNC, the
border defense forces known as the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR),
customs, the navy, the coast guard, and local magistrates.
Although there are only 19 legal land boarder crossings,
Bangladesh's borders are generally considered porous.
Elements of the BDR, responsible for land border security
within twelve-miles of the boarder, are widely believed to
abet the smuggling of goods, including narcotics, into
Bangladesh. Customs, the navy, the coast guard and the DNC
are under-funded, poorly equipped and staffed, and lack
training. Customs officials also lack arrest authority. At
ports of entry where customs officials are not stationed with
police units, they have no capacity to detain suspected
traffickers. Instead, they can only retain the contraband
items found. There is no DNC presence at the country's second
largest airport, in Chittagong, which has direct flights to
Burma and Thailand. To date, no random searches of crews,
ships, boats, vehicles, or containers are being performed at
the country's largest seaport in Chittagong. These obstacles
significantly undermine overall BDG counternarcotics efforts.

The Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), established in 2004,
targets organized criminal activity, including narcotics
offenses. Increased narcotics seizures, principally
attributed to the RAB, have resulted in higher street prices
for popular opiates like phensidyl and pathedine. Seizures
in 2005 included 3,000 bottles of phensidyl.

There is no centralized record of narcotics seizures by law
enforcement agencies. The most current figures available are
compiled by the Criminal Investigation Division (CID). These
records vary significantly from the DNC data included in the
2005 report. These data indicate that drug quantities seized
by Bangladesh authorities from January through July 2005 are
as follows: 36.8 kilograms of heroin (seizures for the entire
year of 2004, according to the CID were at 43.4 kilograms);
3322.6 kilograms of marijuana (3514.4 kg seized during all of
2004); 7387.5 liters of phensidyl (6342.3 liters seized
during all of 2004); and 1902 ampules of pathedine injection
(5976 ampules seized during all of 2004). It is important to
note that these statistics do not reflect all seizures made
by all agencies in Bangladesh, as evidenced by the comparison
to DNC data last year., Post, however, believes them to be
reflective of general trends in Bangladesh.

Corruption. Corruption is endemic at all levels of society
and government in Bangladesh. Authorities involved in jobs
that have an affect on the drug trade facilitate the
smuggling of narcotics. Corrupt officials can be found
throughout the chain of command. If caught, prosecuted, and
convicted, most officials receive a reprimand at best and
termination from government service at worst. Adjudicating
authorities do not take these cases seriously.

An Anti-Corruption Commission was officially formed in
November 2004 with a mandate to investigate corruption and
file cases against government officials. The ACC has been
hampered by disputes over staffing and organization and has
yet to operate effectively or demonstrate the ability to act
independently. The BDG does not, as a matter of government
policy, encourage or facilitate illicit production or
distribution of drugs or controlled substances or launder
proceeds from their transactions. No senior official has been
identified as engaging in, encouraging, or facilitating the
production or distribution of drugs or controlled substances.

Agreements and Treaties. Bangladesh is a party to the 1988 UN
Drug Convention. It has a memorandum of understanding on
narcotics cooperation with Iran, an extradition treaty with
Thailand, and it participates in information sharing with the
government of Burma. It is a signatory to the 1990 SAARC
Convention on Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances. It
is negotiating a bilateral agreement with India.
Cultivation/Production. The DNC strongly denies
unsubstantiated reports from several NGO and local government
officials that opium production takes place in the Bandarban
district along the border with Burma. The DNC reports,
however, that it has destroyed a few "small" poppy crops in
the hill tracts near Chittagong and in the northwest it says
were cultivated for seeds cooking spices for local
consumption. The DNC also reports limited amounts of
cannabis are cultivated for local consumption in the hill
tracts, in the southern silt islands, and in the northeastern
region. The DNC, working with law enforcement agencies,
reportedly destroys any cannabis crops it discovers

Drug Flow/Transit. Bangladesh is situated between the Golden
Crescent to the west and the Golden Triangle to the east.
Porous boarders, weak law enforcement institutions, and
corruption leave Bangladesh vulnerable to smuggling of opium
based pharmaceuticals and other medicinal drugs from India
and white heroin from Burma.

Domestic Programs (Demand Reduction). There is no consensus
estimate of the number of drug addicts in Bangladesh. A
recent DNC study estimated the addict population at two
million and growing. Other BDG estimates put the figure as
low as 250,000. The total number of drug cases and accused
drug offenders doubled between 1999 and 2001 and continues to
rise. Media and anecdotal reports suggest that drug abuse,
while previously a problem among the ultra-poor, is becoming
a major problem among the wealthy and well-educated young,
and increasingly among educated, well-off young women, some
of whom are turning to prostitution to support their habits.
The BDG sponsors rudimentary educational programs aimed at
youth in schools and mosques, and has modestly increased
funding for these programs in 2005, although there is no
clear indication of their impact. NGOs have expressed
concerns about the quality of these messages.

The BDG currently runs outpatient and detoxification centers
in Dhaka, Chittagong, Khulna, and Rajshahi. These are not
treatment centers and thus have limited success addressing
the underlying addiction. The BDG opened the first 250 bed
drug treatment and rehabilitation facility in 2005. There
are other, non-governmental centers with a variety of
treatment therapies available. Unfortunately, most of these
are quite expensive by Bangladeshi standards and therefore
beyond the reach of most drug addicts. There is, however, a
drug addicts' rehabilitation organization, APON, that
operates five long-term residential rehabilitation centers,
including the first center in Bangladesh for the
rehabilitation of female drug-users, which opened in 2005.
These are the only such facilities in Bangladesh,

IV. U.S. Policy Initiatives and Programs

Policy Initiatives. The USG continues to support Bangladesh's
counternarcotics efforts through various commodities and
training assistance programs. Pursuant to the 2002 U.S. LOA,
equipment and law enforcement courses were provided in 2005,
primarily to the police, but also to DNC laboratory
technicians and officers, and members of the BDR. U.S.
technical assistance in 2005 identified significant
management issues at a DNC lab, which the DNC has addressed.
Other initiatives under consideration include the
modernization of law enforcement training facilities in
Bangladesh and further development of anticorruption programs
within the government.

The Road Ahead. The USG will continue to provide law
enforcement and forensic training for BDG officials and work
with the BDG to construct a comprehensive strategic plan to
develop, professionalize, and institutionalize Bangladesh
counternarcotics efforts. This will include working with the
BDG to stem drug trafficking before it reaches Bangladesh,
primarily by improving maritime security but also by
improving land border patrolling.
CHAMMAS

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