“Open Up, It’s the Border Guards!”
On a serene Volyn evening, as the village was preparing to turn in for the night, an unusually big crowd of masked law enforcement officers gathered near the Village Council, a nearby garage their objective. On the leader’s signal, plain-clothed and uniformed officers filled the garage. The sight of armed men left those in the garage paralyzed for a moment, and they came to their senses only when taken away in handcuffs.
This was a joint operation of Ukraine’s Security Service, police, and border guards, which is no wonder, since among those arrested were six illegal Afghan migrants, while the village is a stone’s throw from the Ukrainian-Polish border. Aside from a minibus equipped for transporting illegal migrants, the border guards also found night vision goggles probably used for watching the movement of border patrols on night duty.
It will be recalled that in 2000 the president issued a decree endorsing the Action Program to Maintain the Regime of Ukraine’s State Border and Frontier Regime and Develop the Border Guard and Customs Authorities of Ukraine to 2005. In particular, the program envisioned reforming the Border Troops into the State Border Service of Ukraine, which happened in the summer of 2003. Under the law On the State Border Service of Ukraine, the Border Troops have been reorganized into a special purpose law enforcement service. Some will undoubtedly say that the border troops have followed the spirit of the times and replaced the old label with a new resonant name. In reality, everything is far more complex.
IN THE ZONE OF SPECIAL ATTENTION
Our state border has been of late in the focus of the world community, the country’s leadership, and the Ukrainian public at large. The border issues have long dominated the attention of all Ukrainian mass media without exception, and the transformation of the border troops into a law enforcement agency is not the only cause of such increased attention. It is largely due to the fact that Ukraine will soon have a common border with the enlarged Europe and asymmetrical visa regimes with the aspiring EU members. Add to this all kinds of territorial disputes involving Ukraine. And while the problem of Zmiyiny (Snake) Island is being solved over the negotiating table with the help of expert groups, the same cannot be said of other disputes.
Unknown until recently, Tuzla Island became a real test of expertise for the Ukrainian border guards, and the defenders of our state border passed it successfully.
Over the past few years the situation on the Ukrainian border was significantly altered. The changing external threats and tactics of the border violators require the border guards to respond appropriately. The activity of the Ukrainian border guards was for some time subject to myriad bylaws and amendments that had to be combined in one document, and the law On the State Border Service became such a document.
THEY CAN AND THEY WILL
It is not ruled out that from now on those on the wrong side of the law will often hear the phrase “Open up, it’s the border guards!” The border guards are now coordinating the activity of all law enforcement agencies in cross-border areas. Thus, now they can independently — unaccompanied by police or security service officers — enter private premises with the owners’ permission or without their permission if such entry is necessitated by the pursuit of suspected offenders or an attempt to save a person’s life or property.
The border guards have also been given a free hand on the road: they are authorized to stop and inspect any vehicle and check the documents.
The first fruits of such changes came early. For example, during the Ingus-2003 operation that lasted from September 9 through October 9 in the country’s east, border guard units with drug-sniffing dogs inspected private premises independently or accompanied by police officers and seized over eighty kilograms of drugs, three firearms, ammunition, and even a landmine, and arrested two wanted criminals.
The new law also authorizes the border guards to use weapons and special means of coercion on a par with other law enforcement officers in keeping with the Law On Police. They use these new powers quite expertly. It is also worth noting that the equipment they use has been significantly upgraded of late.
Cases of solitary attempts to cross the border illegally have become rare, replaced by cross- border criminal organizations that are mushrooming on Ukrainian territory. Fish poaching in the so-called naval economic zone, contraband, transporting illegal migrants, and human trafficking all bring colossal profits. And this business is becoming more and more sophisticated. Last year alone UAH 50,000,000 worth of contraband was seized and almost 9,000 violators arrested.
The border guards now apprehend more and more offenders driving powerful trucks or fast cars. In the eleven months of 2003 they detained nearly 700 cars carrying contraband or traveling on fake documents. They are often equipped with foreign-made radio scanners than can tune to police and border guard wavelengths. Traffickers of illegal migrants often carry walky-talkies and night vision goggles.
Thus one can say for a fact that today’s border violators are organized, well equipped, and sometimes armed. In the eleven months of 2003 the border guards seized over 400 firearms and 10,000 pieces of ammunition. Taking into account the looming threat of international terrorism, with the border guards in the front line to counter it, Ukraine’s leadership decided to transfer to the then State Border Committee some of its military equipment and hardware as part of the defense reform. In particular, instead of gathering dust in military hangars armored personnel carriers are now used to defend the border and have helped catch the violators in the act. The border guards also use their air fleet extensively. Beginning this year, the naval fleet will maintain a permanent presence in our territorial waters, a practice widely used under the Soviets.
PATROLS, INSPECTORS, AND INVESTIGATORS
With the change of status came the redistribution of the border guard personnel. The classical rounds, patrols, and other kinds of border details have remained the key force. Yet today the priorities of the border guards include not only detecting and apprehending violators, but also collecting advance information and immediately responding to such information, which is primarily the province of the border service inspectors, who have been added to the force of the border posts. Operative search units also work in the upper structural echelons.
Today offenders should beware of the border guards not only on the border. As of August 1, 2003, they have been authorized to investigate cases connected with violations of border legislation. Now the border guards have their own bodies of investigation, administrative proceedings, and pretrial inquiry. Thus, last year they opened 260 criminal cases. Some 14,500 persons were detained in the course of administrative proceedings and nearly 14,000 were brought to account.
Understandably, experienced instructors are needed to adequately train specialists to be a border guard. Officers for this service are taught mainly at the Khmelnytsky National Academy of the State Border Service of Ukraine, whose faculty includes over 130 specialists.
At the close of 2003, the administration of the State Border Service, the Mobile Border Guards Squadron stationed outside Kyiv, and the Border Guards Unit of the Boryspil Airport each hosted meetings of the command. Aside from the new technologies they saw the means that will help introduce them. Representatives of design bureaus and plants working for law enforcement agencies presented their novelties, which they are ready to supply to border guard units. Commanders and journalists familiarized themselves with the performance capabilities of radar, sensors, portable readers for documents, scanners, and whatnot. All of this and more will be supplied to the border guards this year, and some novelties are used extensively today. The meetings were followed by a closing meeting, during which State Border Service Chief Mykola Lytvyn summed up the preliminary results of the functioning of the border guard in the capacity of a law enforcement agency. He stressed the positive shifts and outlined the priorities that should simplify as much as possible the procedure of crossing the state border and simultaneously prevent violations.
