OSCE launches EU-funded sustained field operational course for Tajikistan’s Border Troops in Khorog
The OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe launched a four-week course in Khorog to enhance the professional capacities of Tajikistan’s Border Troops to effectively react to emerging threats that occur in border areas. The opening ceremony took place on 1 June 2021 with participation of high-level representatives from Tajikistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tajikistan’s Border Troops and the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe.
Thirty-one border officers of the Special Border Unit will refresh their skills in topography, first-aid related to battlefield injuries, tactical patrolling, radio communications, national border regulations, gender awareness, risk assessment, patrol report writing and survival techniques specific to summer and winter. Mountaineering or alpine training will also be included in the course. Tactical patrolling modules will include lessons on national legislation and international human rights commitments pertaining to the rights and treatment of detainees and refugees.
Valeriu Chiveri, Head of the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe opened the event and highlighted that the project is implemented in line with Tajikistan’s National Strategy for Border Management for 2010–2025. “Course modules focus both on theory of conducting border operations and practical exercises. I hope that this approach will help refresh the knowledge the Tajik Border Troop officers already have, and that it will allow them to successfully apply it to their day-to-day work,” Chiveri said.
Colonel Pahlavi Vosiev, Deputy Head of the Border Troops Department of the State National Security Committee of the Republic of Tajikistan for GBAO said: “The Tajik Border Troops highly appreciate the contribution of the OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe in the field of border stabilization and security. We have heard positive feedback about the Stabilization of Tajikistan's southern border region within the Afghanistan Project. For the Badakhshan region, such courses are relevant, since the military and political situation in Afghanistan changes daily and it is felt on our border.”
This training course is part of a project funded through the European Union’s Foreign Policy Instrument. The project aims to increase the professional capacity of both Tajikistan’s Border Troops and Afghan Border Services to better tackle illicit activities in border areas.
The OSCE Programme Office in Dushanbe is organizing the training in co-operation with Tajikistan’s Border Troops.