William O. Beeman

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld visited Tajikistan in his recent swing through Central Asia in the hopes that American troops could develop supply lines through that country. Nothing was concluded during Rumsfeld's visit. This is not surprising, because the United must overcome extensive obstacles before it could work in Tajikistan. Some of the problems are logistic, but the greatest problems are political.

The logistic problems are considerable. The area of Tajkistan that is of most interest to the United States is the region bordering the area controlled by the Northern Alliance in Northern Afghanistan. Land access to the Northern Alliance region is astonishingly difficult. Having personally traveled the entire route last August by road, I can attest that crossing the ferociously swift Pyanj River--a branch of the Amu Darya (Oxus) is a frightening prospect even for the most advanced military strategists.

Along the Pyanj there is a single one-lane dirt road skirting the river with thousand -foot drops on both sides. The mountains on the Afghan side of the river rise thousands of feet straight up--a nearly impenetrable sheer wall. There is indeed a bridge spanning the Pyanj in the town of Ishkashim--but Ishkashim is in the most remote corner of the most remote area of Tajikistan, in the Gorno-Badakhshan autonomous region. Land travel to Ishkashim requires more than 24 hours from Dushanbeh under the best conditions. In winter when the road is buried in snow, the journey is much longer. A somewhat shorter route travels through a region near the city of Garm. But that region is full of dangerous refugees from the recent Tajik civil war. These Islamic revolutionaries have kidnapped foreign aid workers in recent months, making the longer and harder, but safer route the preferred one.

Air traffic is possible to the capital of the region, Khorogh, where some ferrying of goods across the Pyanj is possible. However the route is one of the most treacherous in the world. Flying through the narrow mountain passes of the Pyanj makes the scariest amusement park rides tame by comparison. Only the smallest, most nimble planes can make the trip, and even the faintest cloud cover makes aviation virtually impossible.

The only other land route to Gorno-Badakhshan proceeds through Kyrgyzstan, and the city of Osh--the so-called Pamir highway. It also requires 24 hours of hard travel over mountain steppe with little water or other facilities en route. This is currently the principal travel route for heroin smugglers. Since most heroin production in Afghanistan is coming from the Northern Alliance region, this route may be unwelcome to the people the United States wishes most to help.

A possible military staging area for Tajikistan is a former Soviet air base in the city of Kulyab. The base is close enough to the Afghan border to be useful as an entrepot. It could be the staging area for an air bridge to the Northern Alliance controlled city of Fayzabad, which also has an airport. Kulyab could also be the beginning point for land transport across the Pyanj. This is the point where political difficulties begin.

It will be necessary for the United States to strike agreements with both Russia and Uzbekistan for use of either the land or the air routes into the Northern Alliance region. Uzbekistan, which offers the most convenient routes into the region, has been openly hostile to Tajikistan. At present there is no commercial air traffic between the two nations, despite the fact that they are neighbors. President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan is so afraid of Islamic militant groups in Tajkistan that he has also sealed and mined the land border between the two nations. Even the rail connections that link Tajikistan with the rest of the region have been sealed.

Russia has 75,000 troops stationed all along the border. Travel through the region requires credentials be checked every few kilometers. The young, and stupifyingly bored Russian troops shoot off their guns just to relieve the tedium.

Somehow, both President Putin and President Karimov must be mollified enough to allow Americans free access to the region, and free reign once in the region. Added to this is the fact that the United States has completely ignored Tajikistan since its independence.

The lack of American interest is not surprising. Russia has done its best to retain the poor, landlocked nation as a kind of quasi-colony with American compliance.

There is no oil in Tajikistan, and the drought-ridden nation has massive infrastructural problems. A road connection to the Karakorum highway in Pakistan that would help the region is so underfunded that construction had to be halted because there was no money for food for the workers. The American Embassy in Dushanbeh was closed several years ago because there was no money in the State Department budget to bring it up to congressionally mandated security standards.

President Rakhmanov of Tajikistan should drive the hardest of bargains with Washington for use of Tajik territory. He is taking a big chance with his own internal politics in even talking to Washington. The recent Tajik civil war pitted Islamic militants against secularists. American troops in Kulyab (President Rakhmanov's home town) could spark more government resistance. The American presence will tax the meager Tajik resources severely.

Relaxation of the virtual Uzbek embargo of Tajikistan should be one result of the negotiations. Improvement of the Tajik transportation and communication infrastructure should be another. Finally, a commitment to American development aid for the nation should definitely be part of the package.

The United States has a chance to prove that it does not just exploit underdeveloped nations for its own convenience in this case. Using Tajik facilities will help our military position in Afghanistan, but treating Tajikstan with fairness and equity will help improve America's bona fides throughout the region.

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William O. Beeman teaches anthropology at Brown University. He has been conducting researc in Tajikistan for the past four years, and is completing a book entitled The Search for Tajik Identity.

©2001 William O. Beeman and Pacific News Service. All rights reserved. This article may be freely distributed for any non-commercial purpose. For commercial use contact the author or Pacific News Service.