KAZAKHSTAN: G/TIP ACTION PLAN SEEN AS A (MOSTLY) GOOD

UNCLAS ASTANA 002113 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS SCA/CEN (O'MARA),SCA/RA (PLLEIDERER),G/TIP (FARAJ),INL/AAE (BUHLER) E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM PGOV KCRIM KZ SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: G/TIP ACTION PLAN SEEN AS A (MOSTLY) GOOD ROADMAP REF: STATE 99409 ¶1. (SBU) On July 26 INL Officer delivered the TIP Action Plan demarche providing recommendations for increasing Kazakhstan's conviction and sentencing of traffickers, and improving assistance to victims to Ministry of Justice Office Director Elvira Abilkhasimovna Azimova. INL Officer provided a copy of the action plan as a non-paper. ¶2. Azimova responded positively, actively proposing ways that Kazakhstan could cooperate with the embassy to address the action points provided in reftel. To prepare for the interim report later this year she agreed to work more closely with embassy to provide complete and accurate data but noted that conviction statistics were somewhat cyclic, not following an annual calendar. Azimova cautioned however that improving the conviction rate through ministerial involvement in court cases was an abrogation of the status of the independent judiciary and would not happen. She offered that the government of Kazakhstan was actively looking for a tested mechanism to establish and implement grants to NGO to create a mechanism to provide assistance to victims. INL will follow up on this request which will improve assistance to victims of trafficking. ¶3. (SBU) Azimova said Kazakhstan did consider trafficking a serious crime and was attacking this issue, pointing to the collaborative work between the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the embassy on training police officers. INL Officer agreed that much action had been undertaken and while prosecutions had increased other results, i.e. convictions and sentences to prison seemed meager. Furthermore, while training police is a necessary step it is not sufficient and training of procurators and judges is critical to ensuring that guilty traffickers were properly tried, convicted, and sentenced. ¶4. (SBU) Azimova cautioned that the training would not guarantee additional convictions of traffickers. Kazakhstan had an independent judiciary and the government would not attempt to influence court proceedings to achieve more convictions. INL Officer rejoined that training for procurators and judges was not an attempt to influence cases but to improve the professional capacity of court officers to try and adjudicate TIP crimes. MILAS