VZCZCXRO7932
PP RUEHAST
DE RUEHTA #1113/01 1161038
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 261038Z APR 07
FM AMEMBASSY ASTANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9264
INFO RUEHAST/USOFFICE ALMATY

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). 
 
 
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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 
 
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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. 
 
 
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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