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SPEAKING FREELY
Central Asia as a transit region for
drugs
By Niklas Swanstrom
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online
feature that allows guest writers to have their say.
Please click here if you are
interested in contributing.
Central Asia
has since ancient times been a region blessed with open
borders and trade with people from all corners of the
world. This blessing has turned into a double-edged
sword in the 21st century. The lack of effective border
controls and weak infrastructure has created borders
that are very easy to penetrate for goods that need to
avoid official routes, such as drugs, weapons and human
trafficking.
Central Asia is positioned between
the world's largest drug producing regions and has
become the springboard to the European market.
Afghanistan and Southeast Asia produces the bulk of the
drugs that are smuggled to Europe, but China and North
Korea are increasingly positioning themselves as
producers of narcotics. China is, however, more
interesting as a transit region for Southeast Asian
producers towards the European market.
This is
seen in that currently China intercepts 20 percent of
all heroin and morphine in the world, and a large
proportion of the drugs originating from Southeast Asia
are destined for the European markets, even if the
markets in Northeast Asia have grown in importance.
The Central Asian states have increased their
heroin interceptions by 50 percent in the past few
years. The high increase in the number of seizures only
exemplifies that the actual trade has increased, as have
the number of conflicts between competing drug lords who
tend to turn each other over to the police. The increase
in the drug trade can been seen in that the price of
heroin and other drugs has been relatively constant in
Central Asia and China, but demand in consumption
countries has increased. This indicates that production
has increased, and more drugs are smuggled across the
region.
The role of Central Asia has increased
as Iran, which has traditionally been an important
smuggling route, has been relatively successful its war
against narcotics and made the Iranian route more
difficult to use. In simple economic terms, the
transaction costs are relatively low in Central Asia,
especially since it can use the Russian network to
smuggle drugs to consumer markets. Central Asia has,
moreover, the weakest political structures, with little
determination to combat the drug trade, which makes it
the most reliable link to the consumer markets in
Europe. This makes it more profitable for the Southeast
Asian and Northeast Asian drug traders to direct their
trade through Central Asia rather than the more insecure
water or airways to Europe.
The increased
pressure on the Central Asian region as a transit region
for drugs from China and Southeast Asia has created
several grave problems for the socio-political and
economic survival of the Central Asia states. The
increased drug trade currently affects more than
Tajikistan and Turkmenistan (that has traditionally been
the primary drug link) since the trade that is done
through China is also directed through Kyrgyzstan and
Kazakhstan to minimize the possibility of seizures. A
direct implication of this is that the trade is
increasingly difficult to control as it spreads over a
larger area and is increasingly diversified. Competition
between criminal networks from Afghanistan, Russia and
other parts of Asia has affected the trade negatively,
with a higher density of traders and a greater part of
the economy that is drug related. There is, moreover, an
increase in violence in these states that is related to
the narcotics business.
Central Asia has
undoubtedly been affected negatively by the increased
usage of the region as a transit point, and since the
international drug networks proliferate in unstable
societies with a high degree of corruption it is not
surprising that we can see a high increase in
destabilization of the regional states and an increased
level of corruption and criminalization of their
societies.
There is not only a greater
proportion of employment that is drug related in the
region, capital from the narco-business is invested in
legitimate business and used to take control of the
regional business structure. Societies are therefore
increasingly dependent on drug related revenue, both
formally and informally. As the transit business is
partly paid in narcotics, rather than capital, this has
impacted the number of drug users in the region
negatively, on top of the increase in drug users that
can be attributed to the diminishing economic situation
in many of the countries in the region. The increased
amount of drugs from Southeast Asia and China that
transits Central Asia has furthered strengthened the
illegal economies at the cost of the open economies.
At a health level, the situation is
deteriorating as the narcotics trade has increased. In
the footsteps of the drug trade there is a ravaging
level of AIDS and Hepatitis C that threatens to paralyze
medical care in the region. Figures from the United
Nations and other international organizations have been
able to establish a direct correlation between the drugs
trade and the number of HIV positive cases in the
region, and the increase of registered HIV positive
cases has risen rapidly the last few years. The
deteriorating health situation could potentially be one
of the greatest threats to the region.
The
negative effects of the narcotics trade have
strengthened the criminal networks and destabilized the
states in the region. Traders and producers tend to work
in heavily corrupt states or states in disarray as these
states do not have the capability or willingness to deal
with smugglers and producers. Central Asia has been at
risk at becoming controlled by criminal networks and
drug related capital, and with the increased attention
from China and Southeast Asia this risk is accentuated.
The situation in Central Asia has been more
acute as drugs from other parts of Asia have been routed
through the region. The political, social and economic
effects will be devastating; especially in the long run
if nothing is done. To meet the current situation, there
is a need for increased international and regional
cooperation, especially to improve the capability of
drugs enforcement agencies in Central Asia. It will not
be enough to simply assist the Central Asian states to
reduce the negative effects, but rather it is needed to
assist the Central Asian states in strengthening their
political structures and economic situation. To do this
there is an increased need to understand the regional
dynamics and the networks that are involved in the
narcotics trade in a Eurasian context.
Speaking Freely is an Asia Times Online
feature that allows guest writers to have their say.
Please click here if you are
interested in contributing.
Dr
Niklas Swanstrom, Associate Professor/Director,
Program for Contemporary Silk Road Studies, Department
of Peace and Conflict Research, Uppsala,
Sweden.
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