KAZAKHSTAN: JOINING FORCES WITH THE U.S. TO COMBAT ILLEGAL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASTANA 000203 SIPDIS STATE FOR INL, SCA/CEN , OSD FOR PIRRATANO, CENTCOM FOR MALCOM AND ROESNER, JUSTICE FOR FBI, DHS FOR CBP DENNIS ULRICH, ROLAND SULIVERAS, AND MARK ADAMS, HHS FOR MITCHELL-FRABLE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SNAR KCRM PREL KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: JOINING FORCES WITH THE U.S. TO COMBAT ILLEGAL NARCOTICS SUPPLY, DEMAND, AND ADDICTION Ref: ASTANA 128 ASTANA 00000203 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. Summary: A senior-level Kazakhstani interagency delegation visited Washington December 4-8 to meet with State, DHS, FBI, DOD, DEA, HHS, DOJ, and others to discuss bilateral collaboration to combat illegal narcotics supply, reduce societal drug demand especially among young people, combat addiction, and improve rehabilitation. The delegation, traveling at the invitation of INL Assistant Secretary Anne Patterson, included representatives from the Ministries of Internal Affairs, Defense, Education, and Health; the Border Guard Service; the Committee for National Security; Procurator General's Office; and a national center to combat drug addiction. The visit resulted in concrete steps to expand cooperation to reduce drug supply, demand, and addiction. End summary. ¶2. Background: During discussions with Ambassador Ordway early in 2006, Minister of Internal Affairs Baurzhan Mukhamedzhanov expressed interest in improving Kazakhstan's counter-narcotics strategy by engaging in bilateral discussions with U.S. experts in order to learn from best practices. During her May visit to Kazakhstan, INL Assistant Secretary Anne Patterson invited an interagency team to visit Washington to meet U.S. experts in supply reduction, demand reduction, and addiction/rehabilitation. -------------- DEMAND REDUCTION -------------- ¶3. A December 4 roundtable discussion at State lead by Dr. Bertha Madras, ONDCP Deputy Director for Demand Reduction, focused on the need to attack the demand for drugs, especially by young people, on multiple fronts using media platforms such as radio, TV, internet, newspaper and magazines, and even text messaging on cell phones. Madras encouraged outreach efforts targeting the anti-drug message to schools, universities, and other hangouts. She pointed out that in the U.S., television anti-drug spots are aimed not only at young people but their parents. She elaborated that sports events, musical performances, artistic exhibitions, and other cultural events are excellent venues to broadcast the anti-drug message. ¶4. DEA presented its Street Smart drug use prevention program which reaches out to state governments, local communities, and schools. The program was a successful model of a law enforcement agency, normally associated in the public mind with interdiction, effectively attacking the scourge of drug use from both the demand and the supply ends. -------------- ADDICT TREATMENT AND REHABILITATION -------------- ¶5. Changing topics to addiction, Dr. Madras outlined the U.S. approach to drug treatment. She pointed out that in the experience of the U.S., medicine will not help drug addicts recover without simultaneous support from social services. She argued for the important role of social support, saying that drug addicts should not feel that they are social outcasts but rather that they need treatment. ¶6. Dr. Katkov, Head of Faculty of Psychotherapy and Narcology of the National Center for Applied Research on Drug Addiction in Pavlodar, actively questioned Dr. Madras regarding U.S. use of methadone and buprenorphine for the treatment of addiction. Dr. Madras reported that in 44 U.S. states doctors use methadone as a substitute therapy and it is successful when combined with a social support service. ¶7. Dr. Katkov and the Ministry of Education representative Uteshev visited the office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA) at the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss the issues of narcotics addiction and psychiatry. After returning to Kazakhstan, Katkov and Uteshev expressed interest in continuing the dialogue with the U.S. experts on demand reduction (Reftel) and addiction prevention and rehabilitation programs with HHS and ONDCP ASTANA 00000203 002.2 OF 003 In addition, Katkov specifically mentioned his interest in establishing links with the U.S. National Institute for Drug Addiction. The goal of the dialogue is the development of professional relations and joint action which will lead to increased professional knowledge and improved effectiveness in these areas. ¶8. Based on the meeting with the Kazakhstani delegation at SAMHSA, HHS representatives identified the following points which could form the basis for further dialogue. A) Develop an age-specific prevention education program ("drug demand reduction") within schools in Kazakhstan. B) Create programs to educate the general public that drug treatment is a medical treatment that works (including methadone therapy). C) Continue work to co-locate HIV treatment centers with drug treatment centers. D) Train primary care providers in substance abuse screening. E) Facilitate a dialogue between the police and the community of medical and governmental bodies that treat addiction to enhance free and open communication. This could include mayors, school administrators, and the medical community at large. -------------- SUPPLY REDUCTION -------------- ¶9. Michael Braun, DEA Chief of Operations, and James Soiles, Chief of Enforcement Operations for Europe, Asia, Africa, Middle East and Canada, briefed the delegation concerning the U.S. approach to attacking drug trafficking on a global scale. Delegation members engaged in supply reduction expressed strong interest in working with DEA to improve interdiction in Kazakhstan. ¶10. During briefings at DEA headquarters, Chairman of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Committee on Combating Narcotics Anatoliy Vyborov put three offers on the table to develop a closer working relationship with DEA. He offered to support broader U.S. involvement in the Central Asia Regional Information Coordination Center (CARICC) which is under development in Almaty. He offered to open his Committee to any type of training that DEA could provide to improve interdiction capacity and capability of his counter-drug effort. He also offered to conduct joint operations in Kazakhstan with DEA agents in order to detect, interdict, and prosecute narcotics traffickers. ¶11. James Rose, DEA Chief of the Office of International Program for countries in Central Asia expressed agreement in principle to closer cooperation between the two services and promised to establish coordination through the DEA office in Tashkent. ¶12. At the DEA meeting and other briefings in Washington Vyborov expressed his opinion that the most significant problems that counter-narcotics forces in Afghanistan should be addressing were locating and destroying mobile drug producing laboratories and the interdicting the supply of precursors such as anhydride and hydrochloric and acetic acid. He stated that attacking these two problems would significantly contribute to lower drug production in Afghanistan and would thereby reduce the quantity of illegal narcotics transiting Kazakhstan. ¶13. Representatives of the Office of the Secretary of Defense met with the delegation to express their appreciation for overall GOK cooperation on counternarcotics issues. General Abdulmanov of the Ministry of Defense presented OSD representatives with an overview of the delegation's purpose and expressed his pleasure with the content of the December 4 strategy meeting and related briefings. The OSD representatives thanked General Abdulmanov and the GOK's continued commitment to fighting narcotics smuggling. ¶14. CENTCOM briefed the delegation on the role, and limitations, of the military in the U.S. fight against the supply of drugs, primarily from Central and South America. CENTCOM highlighted its ASTANA 00000203 003.2 OF 003 interest in working with Kazakhstan's law enforcement community to create a narcotics interdiction force on the Caspian. -------------- BORDER SECURITY AND CRIME FIGHTING -------------- ¶15. FBI and the Customs and Border Protection Bureau of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS/CBP) provided two examples of U.S. best practices in combating narcotics and attendant crimes. Both programs were viewed favorably by the delegation; post expects future collaboration in these areas. ¶16. Customs and Border Protection representatives presented a freight targeting program which uses available manufacturer, shipper, forwarder, consignee, and multimodal transportation route information to identify suspect containers, trucks, ships, etc. and prepare to search them before the shipment arrives at the border checkpoint. The system requires extensive data collection and analysis capability, which the GOK could build over time using U.S. experience as a basis. ¶17. General Utyapov of the Border Guard and Lt. Col. Didenko of the Committee for National Security both immediately saw the utility of the effort and praised its technological development. In conversations on the margins, they pointed out that such a program was not feasible for Kazakhstan in the immediate future because of the extensive computer system necessary to establish and sustain it. (Note: To show just how fast Kazakhstan is developing its capabilities, on December 27 Kazakhstan announced the first pre-cleared customs effort aimed at easing the border crossing of inbound freight yet not sacrificing customs duty collection efficiency. End note.) ¶18. During the delegation's visit to Quantico, the FBI provided a briefing on the Global Initiatives Unit, where Kazakhstan could multiply law enforcement effectiveness by extending data sharing of fingerprints with the FBI. Vyborov expressed interest in collaborating with the U.S. in this effort. The LEGATT in Embassy Astana will follow up. -------------- GOK Delegation Members -------------- ¶19. The delegation was headed by Major General Anatoliy Vyborov, Chairman of the Committee on Combating Drug Trafficking and Controlling Circulation of Narcotics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and included Major General Shintas Utyapov, Deputy Director of the Border Guard Service of the Committee for National Security; Major General Almaz Abdulmanov of the Ministry of Defense; Lieutenant Colonel German Didenko, Director of the Office of Economic Crimes of the Committee for National Security; Shirmirbai Agabekov, Deputy Head of the Department on Supervision of Lawfulness of Investigation of the Procurator General's Office; Nurlan Uteshev, Director of Department for Youth Policy of the Ministry of Education and Science, and Doctor Professor Alexander Katkov, Acting Director of the Kazakhstan Center of Applied Research on Drug Addiction, Ministry of Health. MILAS