Former police officer Aleksandr Zelichenko presents law enforcement and harm reduction experience in Kyrgyzstan

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Former police officer Aleksandr Zelichenko presents law enforcement and harm reduction experience in Kyrgyzstan

18 June 2013

I am a policeman in second generation, and I served in police forces more than 38 years with faith & fidelity. We were taught and we are taught that the drug user is an enemy. The enemy of state, family, enemy of himself. And therefore, as more of them will be sent behind the bar, the better for the country and more comfortable for the society and families. And we followed exactly these rules for many decades.

With the beginning of Afghan drug aggression the situation in the region has changed significantly. Seizures of opium, and heroin reached decades of kilograms. Organized criminal groups specializing in drug smuggling have appeared, and very soon turned into transnational criminal groups. Simultaneously, when we have got concerned who serves sentences for drug related crimes at the peak of drug expansion, it has turned out, that most of such inmates are “small fry” – drug users, who were captured with from one to 10 grams of drug. And number of “Big fish” or “sharks” of drug trade among the fifteen thousand prison population could be counted by fingers of one hand …

It was necessary to change the tactic. We decided to apply a harm reduction practice. Very soon it became quite clear that police can be the worst enemy or the best friend of harm reduction. The police did not accept it at once; we needed a long term process of “police education”. Though, by general opinion, Kyrgyzstan is in beneficial position if compared to its neighbors in the region with regard to drug policy and law enforcement attitude to the problems of drug dependent people, this process is far from completion.

We started with random talks with the policemen on this topic. Further we, jointly with the international organizations, and NGOs providing services to HIV positive and drug dependent people, have developed and introduced a system of police education. At different stages it included humanization of legislation; use of bilingual police newspaper for popularization of knowledge on HR; development of guidelines regulating relations of police with vulnerable groups, including drug users, HIV positive people and sex workers; publication of study guide and introduction of special educational course “Police and HR” in the Police Academy of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Kyrgyz Republic. Establishment of medal “For outstanding contribution to the HIV prevention” by the Non-Governmental sector became an apotheosis of this process. 14 policemen of Kyrgyzstan were awarded with this medal in the last year. This medal represents the major pride …

All this produced some results, but it is important that this process of police education did not interrupt. Newly established international “Law Enforcement and HIV” network, functioning under a motto “By police for police…” should play a big role in this process. I am sincerely proud that I am a coordinator of this network.

Today the Network unites almost five thousand participants from 30 countries of the world. Its task is to make law enforcement staff acquainted with the best practices of harm reduction, promotion of advanced experience of HIV prevention using forms and methods of work attributed to police, elimination of stigma and discrimination of drug dependent and HIV positive people.

Two internet sites are successfully functioning for these purposes in Russian and English languages. They are not duplicating each other, but filled with account of peculiarities of our countries, and mentality of our staff. In April 2013 the Network has successfully presented its organization in the UN. “Police and HIV” has established an international group of police advisors, who participate in the activities at the international level and sharing experience. They have addressed several meetings and conferences in Europe, Australia, South Korea, and in Kiev (Ukraine) they have held consultation with colleagues from the countries of Eastern Europe, Central Asia and Caucasus.

Such meetings allowed determining the role and the place of the Network in the system of international police cooperation, establish good work contacts in the region and use its opportunities in specific countries.

Thus, in Melbourne and Vienna the professionals started international discussion on importance of the harm reduction policy introduction. For many of them the participation in such discussion is progress already. After learning about the positive experience of Kyrgyzstan in the Kiev conference, the Police academy of Moldova has made decision on using it in their home country. The information of our websites is actively used at the local level to provide trainings, education, etc.

In addition to support by the colleagues, the work of the Network uses support of such authority international organizations, as United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), World Health Organization (WHO), European Union funded Central Asia Drug Action Programme (CADAP-5), Open Society Institute (OSI), AIDS Foundation East-West (AFEW), and others. Joint projects aimed at more active involvement of the law enforcement staff to the HIV prevention - are at the stage of development.

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