First course starts at OSCE border management college in Dushanbe

DUSHANBE, 6 October 2009 - The OSCE Border Management Staff College (BMSC) launched its inaugural course in Dushanbe today, with a leadership and management seminar for senior border officers, custom experts and government officials from six OSCE participating states.

The OSCE Border Management Staff College will help train border security managers and promote co-operation between OSCE States and Partner countries.

"The College aims to provide a single point-of-knowledge delivery and promote international standards and best practices in all aspects of border management and leadership," said Ambassador Ivar Vikki, Head of the OSCE Office in Tajikistan. "It will address border-related challenges in all dimensions of the OSCE's work, including terrorism, transnational organized crime, illegal migration and illicit trafficking in nuclear, biological, chemical and conventional weapons, as well as trafficking of human beings, drugs and hazardous waste."

Also addressing the participants, General Qosimjon Gaffarov, the First Deputy of the State National Security Committee of Tajikistan, added: "Dushanbe was not accidentally chosen as the location for the College. Tajikistan has many interesting perspectives to share on border security, not least the challenges arising from the 1,344-kilometre border shared with war-torn Afghanistan."

The course, which will focus on developing and practising personal leadership skills and management techniques, was organized by the OSCE BMSC in co-operation with the OSCE Office in Tajikistan and the Operations Service Borders Team of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre led by Henry Bolton, Senior Border Issues Adviser. Participants come from Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Ukraine.

The OSCE Border Management Staff College was inaugurated in Dushanbe on 27 May in the presence of Tajik Foreign Minister Hamrokhon Zarifi, Ambassador of Greece and Chairperson of the OSCE Permanent Council Mara Marinaki, and the Director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre, Ambassador Herbert Salber.