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