DUSHANBE, Aug 2 (Reuters) - When the United States offered Tajikistan's beleaguered border guards $8 million to defend their troubled frontier with Afghanistan, their head dreamed of buying computers, cars and radios to beef up security.
But nearly 10 months after the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington turned the world's attention to this remote, impoverished nation, Abdurahmon Azimov is a disappointed man: he says all he has received so far are 60 pairs of binoculars.
"It's a disgrace," he told Reuters. And the worst of it is that because the United States has made such a handsome promise, the Tajik government sees no need to give more support to his forces.
"We've been let down by both the United States and Tajikistan. The Tajik government says that because the U.S. has promised help, they don't need to give us help as well."
A spokeswoman for the U.S. embassy in Dushanbe confirmed that the binoculars had been handed over. The embassy issued a lengthy press release in April about them, adding that it would give several million dollars to the border guards this year and next.
But late this week the embassy spokeswoman had no information about when the programme would start.
Tajikistan has a border with Afghanistan stretching for 1,340 km (840 miles), and has long been the favoured route for smuggling drugs and people to the lucrative markets of Russia and Europe.
With Tajikistan weakened by a 1992-1997 civil war, it is unable to protect its frontier unaided, and relies on help from 11,000 Russian border guards who have remained behind since Soviet days.
But Azimov is wholly responsible for some 500 km (300 miles), patrolled by around 5,000 guards. Soon, he will also be responsible for the 500 km border with China.
Still, he says, his men are successfully protecting Tajikistan from incursions by members of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network, some of whom are reported to be in northern Afghanistan looking for escape routes from the U.S.-led operation to eliminate them.
"Not one insurgent has come in this year," Azimov said. He added that many were gathered on the Afghan side looking for weak spots, but so far without success. Seizures of narcotics, especially heroin, are however commonplace.
"Wherever there are narcotics, there will be terrorists," Azimov said.
While he says he urgently needs money to improve communications on his stretch of the border, he was philosophical about what he sees as the United States' failure to deliver on its promise.
"That's the State Department for you," he said.