KAZAKHSTAN: REACHING OUT TO THE U.S. ON REDUCING ILLEGAL

UNCLAS ASTANA 000128 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR INL (ALTON AND DISSELKOEN),SCA/CEN (OMARA),SCA/RA (LEE), WHITE HOUSE FOR ONDCP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR PGOV KCRM KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: REACHING OUT TO THE U.S. ON REDUCING ILLEGAL DRUG DEMAND REF: A) 06 STATE 167469 B) 06 USOffice Astana 0131 C) 06 AmEmbassy Astana 188 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: While discussing our non-paper on U.S. policy on testing secondary school students for drugs, the Head of Youth Policy at the Ministry of Education said that not only law enforcement agencies but MinEd too was now providing grants to NGOs to create anti-drug programs and implementing programs "in house." He asked for U.S. assistance to implement some of the interesting anti-drug program ideas he learned from ONDCP during a recent visit to Washington to discuss counter-narcotics strategy. He promised to provide a written proposal shortly. End summary. ¶2. (SBU) On January 9, Emboffs delivered Ref A points regarding U.S. policy on testing secondary school students for drugs to Nurlan Suleimenovich Uteshev, Head of the Youth Policy Department of the Ministry of Education and Science. A copy of the information was left as a non-paper. Uteshev thanked us for the information and promised to distribute the paper to appropriate offices and agencies promptly. ¶2. (SBU) Responding to questions about the MinEd approach to demand reduction, Uteshev said that his ministry was actively involved in creating programs to publicize the anti-drug message (Ref B). Previously, anti-drug programs were under the purview of law enforcement agencies but Uteshev said the approach had shifted and the role of other ministries was being enhanced. ¶3. (SBU) Uteshev elaborated, saying that previously the MinEd distributed a portion of its demand reduction budget to NGOs and used the remainder to implement its own demand reduction program. This year MinEd changed its approach and granted almost all the funding to local organizations to conduct anti-drug campaigns. He said that MinEd retained only a small portion of the funds in order to oversee the implementation of the grants. ¶4. (SBU) Noting the interesting possibilities he learned from the Office of National Drug Control Policy briefings during his recent trip to the United States, Uteshev advocated cooperation between INL and his ministry to create a partnership to improve demand reduction efforts in Kazakhstan. (Note: Uteshev was a member of a December 2006 INL-sponsored counter-narcotics delegation to Washington. End note.) He suggested expanding the outreach program to include radio and television spots, internet ads, cultural and sports competitions, involvement of student associations, youth wings of political parties, and other local organizations. He emphasized cooperation, saying that the ministry had money to contribute to the proposed venture and did not expect the U.S. to fund everything. To begin the cooperative venture, Uteshev suggested focusing the project on Astana within the framework of the government's program "Astana - drug free city" (Ref C) and not try to launch a program encompassing the entire country. ¶5. (U) Uteshev said he will provide a written proposal for the proposed venture shortly. MILAS