KAZAKHSTAN: INL FIRST QUARTER 2007 MEETINGS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 001113 SIPDIS SCA COLLECTIVE DEPT FOR INL/AAE (ALTON),SCA/CEN (OMARA) SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR PGOV KCRM KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: INL FIRST QUARTER 2007 MEETINGS REF: A) Astana 827, B) Astana 1104 ¶1. Summary: Highlights of the INL Officer's quarterly meetings (accompanied by visiting INL/AAE desk officer) with GOK officials include a positive initial meeting with the new head of the MVD Drug Control Committee; agreement on scheduling of the opening of the MVD Anti-TIP Center; assurances of continued cooperation with the temporary head of the Financial Policy Academy; a request for continued engagement to improve the collection and analysis of crime statistics from the PGO; and agreement on the upcoming visit of Border Guards to the U.S. Visits to INL program sites throughout Kazakhstan will be reported septel. End summary. -------------- BACKGROUND: -------------- ¶2. In conjunction with the visit of INL/AAE desk officer to Kazakhstan, on March 26 post held the first quarter 2007 meetings with representatives from the Committee on Combating Narcotics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Legal Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Committee on Statistics of the Procurator General's Office, the Financial Police Academy of the Agency on Combating Economic Crimes and Corruption, the Military Institute of the Committee for National Security, the Border Guard Service of the Committee for National Security. ¶2. Under the terms of the Amended Letter of Agreement, INL implements six programs in Kazakhstan: Counter-Narcotics, Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Trafficking in Persons, Border Security, Collection of Criminal Statistics, and Improvement of Narcotics Forensics. Currently under development is a program to reduce drug demand. -------------- NEW DRUG CZAR...COLLABORATION CONTINUES -------------- ¶5. On March 26, INL representatives met with the new Chairman of the Committee for Combating Drug Trafficking, Maratkali Nukenov, to discuss future plans for implementation of the INL project on strengthening seven internal anti-narcotics "Rubezh" checkpoints located on north-south traffic arteries in Kazakhstan. The Committee has assigned 171 officers to work at these posts. Nukenov expressed continued support for the Rubezh project and said he looked forward to continued collaboration with the INL office. On March 21, 2007 Major-General Maratkali Ordabayevich Nukenov was appointed the Head of the Kazakhstani Committee on Combating Drug Trafficking and of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The new Chairman replaces 49-year old Major-General Anatoly Vyborov, who submitted his resignation to the Minister of Internal Affairs on March 16, 2007 (Ref A). -------------- ANTI-TIP CENTER -------------- ¶6. Based on the request of the Vice-Minister of Internal Affairs in November 2005, INL conducts joint project to support the Anti-TIP Center at the Karaganda Legal Institute of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The GOK provided $114,000 from the federal budget for the development of the Institute and the other aspects of the the Institute. The Director of the Institute, Dzhan Kenzhetayev, expressed his satisfaction of cooperation with the Embassy over the past year and a half. He confirmed his interest in providing joint training on improving professional anti-trafficking detection and investigation skills and approved training plan for 2007. ¶7. The Director also agreed to conduct the official opening of the Anti-TIP Center in June. He said he viewed the opening as a statement that Kazakhstan is ready to host international Anti-TIP training but had no specific plans yet for inviting officers from neighboring countries. -------------- BEING HONEST -------------- ¶8. INL representatives met with the representatives of Procurator General's Office including Alexander Ogai, Head of the Section of Legal Oversight of State Bodies. He briefed INL on the reasons for delay of the Law on Anti-Money Laundering, saying that the delay provided more time for citizens to legalize their property (Ref B). Initially legalization action lasted until December 31, 2006, then was extended the first time until March 31, and a second time until August 1, 2007. Ogai said he expected the Law on Anti-Money ASTANA 00001113 002 OF 002 Laundering to be adopted by the end of the year. In response to INL Officer's question about the volume of property legalization claims, Ogai said that in the beginning, people were afraid of being fined or prosecuted but now the situation had changed and more and more people were coming forward to register property. However, he said that the registration centers did not have enough personnel to process such a large volume of claims, another reason for extending the property legalization law. -------------- BORDER GUARDS AGREE TO VISIT U.S. -------------- ¶8. Bauyrzhan Yelubayev, Head of the Military Institute, agreed to represent the Border Guards during the upcoming May visit to U.S. on May 17-26. The main aim of this trip is to establish a professional relationship between the Military Institute of Kazakhstan and the U.S. Border Patrol Academy in Artesia, New Mexico. Yelubayev said the Border Guards hopes to transition the training of the Border Guards from a military service to that of a law enforcement organization that can respond to multiple missions including counter-narcotics, trafficking, WMD, and terrorism. ¶9. Note: Originally, Turzyn Uazhanov, Deputy Head of the Border Guard Service of the Committee for National Security, agreed to join the delegation for the visit to the U.S. but later excused himself because of increased staffing turnover among the Deputy Heads of the Border Guards. He agreed to visit at a later date. However, during the quarterly meeting, he expressed interest in continuing cooperation with INL to strengthen the southern border of Kazakhstan since it is the most vulnerable and active area. INL Officer agreed to continue to include assistance to the Southern border when conducting the next phase of the border assess and equip program on the Kazakhstani-Chinese border. End note. -------------- -------------- GOK SHARES COSTS TO DEVELOP BETTER CRIME STATISTICS -------------- -------------- ¶10. INL representatives noted the success of the joint project with the PGO Statistics Committee which arranged a meeting in Washington, DC, on February 4-9 with their colleagues in the Statistics Bureau of the Department of Justice. The goal of the visit was to improve the professional knowledge of statistics managers so that the government could make defensible human and financial resource allocations. The GOK-financed trip showed that INL programs could leverage other contributions to improving statisticians' skills, knowledge, and ability. ¶11. INL Officer also discussed the delivery of the final tranche of computers purchased for the Statistics Committee of the Procurator General's Office (PGO). INL purchased the computers in order to increase the efficiency of the collection of crime statistics. INL implements the joint project with the PGO and provides computers to subdivisions throughout Kazakhstan. In addition, INL assistance supports interagency seminars on revising and improving the joint collection of statistics on all types of crime. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶12. Post was heartened to see the GOK devoting its own money to complement an INL-funded project. The establishment of a professional relationship between the statisticians in the PGO and in DOJ is a healthy sign of GOK interest in raising its crime statistics capability to international standards. Post also views this as a very positive outcome of an INL project and will try to replicate it. ORDWAY