VZCZCXRO3344 
OO RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW 
RUEHLA RUEHLH RUEHLN RUEHLZ RUEHNEH RUEHNP RUEHPOD RUEHPW RUEHROV 
RUEHSK RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG 
DE RUEHTA #2538/01 3580933 
ZNR UUUUU ZZH 
O 230933Z DEC 08 
FM AMEMBASSY ASTANA 
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 4201 
INFO RUCNCIS/CIS COLLECTIVE 0968 
RUCNCLS/SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE 
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE 
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 0370 
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO 1076 
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC 
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC 
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC 
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC 
RHEFAAA/DIA WASHDC 
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC 0541 
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC 0444 
RUEKJCS/JOINT STAFF WASHDC 
RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL 
RUEILB/NCTC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 ASTANA 002538 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR S/CT (RHONDA SHORE), SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, AND NCTC 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER EFIN KCRM KHLS AEMR ASEC KZ
SUBJECT: KAZAKHSTAN: 2008 COUNTRY REPORTS ON TERRORISM 
 
REF: STATE 120019 
 
 
¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified. Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: Kazakhstan continued to combat domestic 
terrorism and extremism aggressively and took tangible steps to 
continue cooperation and information-sharing with the United States 
and international organizations. Kazakhstan also continued to 
strengthen its engagement in international counterterrorism 
activities. Kazakhstan has continued to detain and prosecute 
suspected terrorists, as well as to promote domestic 
counterterrorism activities. With the addition of one international 
organization, the Islamic Party of Turkistan, to the list of banned 
terrorist organizations of 2007, the Government of Kazakhstan now 
designates 16 groups as banned terrorist and extremist 
organizations. The full text of post's 2008 Country Report on 
Terrorism is attached in paragraphs 3-7. END SUMMARY. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Kazakhstan continued to combat domestic terrorism and 
extremism aggressively and took tangible steps to improve 
cooperation and information-sharing related to counterterrorism 
activities with the United States and other international partners. 
In April, the Kazakhstani Committee for National Security (KNB) 
announced plans to submit a strict new law, "On Counteracting 
Terrorism," to parliament that would replace the current law, 
adopted in 1999. At the time, the KNB stated the bill was included 
in the government's legislative plan and would be submitted to 
Parliament in 2008. However, as of December 23, parliament had not 
yet approved the new law. Kazakhstan's Prime Minister instructed 
the Minister of Finance to speed up drafting a bill on combating 
financing of terrorism in June, however, the draft law on terrorism 
finance remained stalled in Parliament, as previously reported in 
¶2007. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Kazakhstan continued to strengthen its engagement in 
international counterterrorism activities. In March, the Government 
of Kazakhstan approved a treaty with the Government of the Slovak 
Republic on cooperation in fighting terrorism. In April, President 
Nursultan Nazarbayev signed two draft laws on counterterrorism 
activities within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation 
Organization (SCO). In May, President Nazarbayev also ratified the 
"International Convention for the Suppression of Acts of Nuclear 
Terrorism," which was previously adopted by the United Nations in 
¶2005. In June, Kazakhstan hosted a Global Initiative to Combat 
Nuclear Terrorism "Anti-Atom Terror" exercise attended by more than 
15 member nations. In August, the Government of Kazakhstan approved 
the signing of a treaty with the Government of the United Arab 
Emirates on cooperation in fighting against terrorism. In 
September, Kazakhstan hosted a "Design-Basis Threat" exercise 
attended by seven partners from the Global Initiative to Combat 
Nuclear Terrorism. Kazakhstan also hosted the Common World Forum in 
October to promote intercultural and inter-religious dialogues. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Kazakhstan has continued to detain and prosecute suspected 
terrorists. In February, a court in Stepnorgorsk sentenced two 
members of an extremist group to 12 years of imprisonment and six 
others to nine years of imprisonment for planning to commit 
terrorist attacks in the fall of 2006. In March, a court in 
Shymkent sentenced 15 members of a terrorist group, detained in 
April 2007 on charges of organizing terrorist acts against the local 
office of the Kazakhstani Committee for National Security (KNB), to 
prison terms ranging from 11-19 years. House searches of the 
convicts revealed hidden explosives, guns, ammunition and religious 
literature, along with a detailed plan of the local KNB building and 
a list with KNB officers' and their family members' home phone 
numbers and addresses. In March, the KNB also detained a resident 
from the town of Rudnyy. After a search of the accused's home 
revealed discs containing films of an extremist nature, a Kostanay 
court sentenced him to two years in prison for promoting terrorism. 
On October 31, the U.S. Department of Defense released the last 
Kazakhstani national detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention 
facility into the custody of the Government of Kazakhstan. The 
Government of Kazakhstan did not institute any legal proceedings 
against him and allowed him to return freely to his home village, 
accompanied by his uncle. In November, police in the southern 
Zhambyl District of Almaty detained an Uzbek citizen, allegedly 
wanted for membership in religious extremist, separatist and 
fundamentalist organizations. According to the Almaty Region's 
prosecutor, police placed the detainee under arrest, pending a 
decision on his extradition to Uzbekistan. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Kazakhstan has promoted intercultural and religious 
dialogues designed to prevent radicalization and supported other 
domestic counterterrorism initiatives. In August, the Ministry of 
Interior and the People's Assembly of Kazakhstan signed a memorandum 
on cooperation in strengthening interethnic and interfaith relations 
within Kazakhstani society. In December, the Ministry of Justice 
opened an International Center of Culture and Religions to study the 
positive experience of interfaith and interethnic cooperation in 
Kazakhstan. In 2008, Kazakhstan also enacted five interagency 
regulatory legal acts regulating the counterterrorism activities of 
public bodies and conducted 149 interagency counterterrorism 
exercises and training programs. 
 
¶7. (SBU) In Kazakhstan, organizations which are typically referred 
to as "terrorist" groups are divided into extremist organizations 
and terrorist organizations. The Islamic extremist group Hizb 
ut-Tahrir (HT) remains the only organization designated and outlawed 
as "extremist" under the "Law on Extremism." As described in 2007, 
the list of 14 terrorist organizations had remained unchanged since 
¶2006. However, in March, the Astana City Court added the Islamic 
Party of Turkistan to the list, increasing the list to 15 banned 
terrorist organizations. The Government of Kazakhstan now 
designates 16 groups as banned terrorist and extremist 
organizations. 
 
HOAGLAND