DUSHANBE, January 30, Asia-Plus -- 66 female drug couriers had been detained in Tajikistan over the first nine months of 2005, Deputy Chairperson of the Tajik Committee for Women’s Affairs, Qimmatgul Aliberdiyeva, told journalists on January 27 referring to data provided by the Ministry of Interior.  

According to her, a number of female drug couriers in 2004 was 79.  Aliberdiyeva said that their Committee in cooperation with the Tajik Drug Control Agency (DCA) had worked out a joint plan of actions.  “Thus last year, employees of the Committee and the DCA visited women’s prisons to conduct individual and group conversations with inmates serving their sentences for the drug-trafficking crimes,” Ms. Aliberdiyeva said, noting the Committee’s branches in the provinces and districts have also held meetings with women to discuss this problem.