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FM AMEMBASSY ASTANA
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RHMFIUU/CDR USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FL
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RHMFIUU/DEPT OF HOMELAND SECURITY WASHINGTON DC 0015

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 ASTANA 000827 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR INL/AAE, SCA/CEN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL PINR SNAR KCRM KTIP KZ
SUBJECT: NEW LAW ENFORCEMENT BLOCK IN KAZAKHSTAN 
 
REF:  ASTANA 0367 
 
ASTANA 00000827  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (U) Sensitive but unclassified.  Not for public Internet. 
 
¶2. (U) SUMMARY:  In early April, President Nazarbayev reshuffled the 
heads of nearly all of Kazakhstan's law agencies.  General Major 
Serik Baimagambetov, a member of the Majilis (i.e. the lower house 
of parliament), was named Minister of Interior, replacing Baurzhan 
Mukhamedzhanov who was appointed to a seat in the Senate (i.e., the 
upper house of parliament).  Procurator General Rashid Tussupbekov 
was named Minister of Justice, replacing Zagipa Baliyeva, who was 
appointed to a seat in the Majilis.  Former Supreme Court Chairman 
(i.e., Chief Justice) Kairat Mami was appointed Procurator General, 
replacing Tussupbekov.  Supreme Court Justice Musabek Alimbekov was 
named the Court's Chairman.  During the reshuffle, the President 
gave the new ministers orders to improve law enforcement.  END 
SUMMARY. 
 
¶3. (U) On April 3 and 4, during meetings with the Senate, President 
Nazarbayev announced a reshuffling of the heads of nearly all of 
Kazakhstan's law enforcement agencies. 
 
¶4. (U) At a subsequent meeting with the newly appointed law 
enforcement officials, President Nazarbayev discussed his concerns 
about law enforcement corruption.  He said the elimination of 
"unqualified people" at all levels in the government and fighting 
corruption will renew the public's trust in the authorities.  He 
tasked the newly-appointed officials with making the necessary 
changes to improve the management of the police, justice, and court 
systems.  Nazarbayev explained that the financial crisis has 
highlighted problems in the system.  High-profile crimes remain 
unresolved, the fight against street crimes is going poorly, and 
organized criminal organizations have stepped up their activities. 
Though the Agency on Combating Economic and Corruption Crime (i.e., 
the Financial Police) has recently intensified its work, there is 
still believed to be a multi-billion tenge criminal economy in 
operation.  The President underlined that coordinated activity of 
law enforcement agencies is necessary to effectively fight crime and 
announced that the Procurator General's Office (PGO) should play the 
coordinating role.   New Minister of Interior Baimagambetov was 
tasked with strengthening public security and "striking fear in the 
hearts of criminals."  The President stated that the police must be 
close to people and that the courts should be open to public.  He 
also tasked all law enforcement agencies with closely overseeing the 
lawful use of government funds allocated for mitigating the effects 
of the financial crisis. 
 
SUPREME COURT CHAIRMAN 
 
¶5. (SBU) New Supreme Court Chairman Musabek Alimbekov has worked in 
the courts throughout his career.  He previously chaired the South 
Kazakhstan Oblast court and then the Almaty City Court.  Immediately 
before his new appointment, Alimbekov headed the Panel of Judges on 
Civil Cases at the Supreme Court for three years.  In one high 
profile case, his panel found for civil servants who were guaranteed 
housing as part of their employment contract, but had not received 
it. 
 
PROCURATOR GENERAL 
 
¶6. (SBU) President Nazarbayev stressed his appointment of Kairat 
Mami to be the new Procurator General was particularly important. 
In his nine years Supreme Court, Chairman Mami had an opportunity to 
closely study the law enforcement system.  The President stressed 
that Mami, as Procurator General, can strengthen the coordination of 
the law enforcement system.  NOTE: Constitutionally, oversight is 
one of the PGO's main roles as it was in the USSR.  Before this 
round of appointments, there had been discussions in the government 
making the PGO's future role as the coordinating agency unclear. 
Representatives of INL and the Legal Attach's Office attended a 
roundtable early this year at the PGO Institute regarding this very 
 
ASTANA 00000827  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
issue.  END NOTE. 
 
MINISTER OF JUSTICE 
 
¶7. (U) New Minister of Justice Rashid Tussupbekov was born in 1955 
in Shymkent and graduated from Karaganda State University in 1981. 
He started his career as a district judge in Karaganda oblast in 
¶1984.  He served as Procurator General from 2000 to 2009.  He has 
published extensively on legal reform and improvement of the 
judicial system.  During the first meeting with the new law 
enforcement heads, President Nazarbayev said that he expects that 
Tusupbekov will improve the Ministry's legal drafting. 
 
MINISTER OF INTERIOR 
 
¶8. (U) New Minister of Interior General Major Serik Baimagambetov 
graduated from Moscow State University in 1980 with a law degree. 
From 1980 until 1990, he worked as an instructor at the Karaganda 
Academy of the Ministry of Interior of the USSR (now the Karaganda 
Legal Institute).  From 1990 through 1992, he worked at the 
Kazakhstani Section on Research of Problems in the Fight against 
Crime of the Higher Scientific and Research Institute of the USSR's 
Ministry of Interior.  From 1992 until 1996, Baimagambetov worked in 
various positions in Kazakhstan's Presidential Administration and 
was Deputy Secretary of the Security Council from 1996 until 1999. 
In 2001, Baimagambetov became Vice Minister of Interior and, in 
2003, he became Vice Minister of Justice.  In 2005, he was appointed 
Deputy Chairman of the Agency on Combating Economic and Corruption 
Crimes and, in 2006, was named to head the Section on Law 
Enforcement and Court Systems in the Presidential Administration. 
From November 2007 until his current appointment, he was a member of 
the Senate 
 
¶9. (U) On April 17, Baimagambetov held his first meeting with the 
heads of the oblast departments of interior.  He reported that there 
were fewer murders, robberies, thefts and other crimes during the 
first quarter of 2009.  He claimed that much has been done to combat 
organized crime.  Joint operations with other law enforcement 
agencies have disrupted the work of the "criminal world's elite," 
but that this has resulted in a new flow of mob bosses 
("thieves-in-law") from Russia, Kyrgyzstan, and Georgia coming to 
Kazakhstan to strengthen their positions and revive their 
"traditions."  He stated that 13 mafia leaders, 18 gang leaders, and 
87 members of organized criminal groups had been arrested during the 
quarter.  The Ministry of Interior (MVD) uncovered 2,718 
drug-related crimes, including 585 cases of drug sales, and seized 
1.7 metric tons of drugs, including 26 kilos of heroin.  The MVD is 
also working more closely with civil society:  over 4,000 civil 
society associations and NGOs with approximately 33,000 members are 
currently working with law enforcement.  The MVD is also working in 
schools through youth programs and school inspectors.  The Minister 
described the overall crime rate as stable, but admitted that the 
economic situation may cause an increase in property and violent 
crimes. 
 
¶10. (U) Baimagambetov tasked the oblast departments with monitoring 
the criminal situation and responding in a timely manner to any 
increases in crime.  The Minister added that the heads of the oblast 
departments need to strengthen the work of their territorial and 
transport subdivisions by making officers personally responsible. 
He said that the Department of Interior of the Eastern Kazakhstan 
oblast has done especially well cleaning up its department -- 
several officers have been dismissed, including the Deputy Head of 
the Department.  (NOTE:  On April 13, the Ministry of Interior 
announced that it is instituting a transparent recruitment system, 
with the main criteria for selection being professionalism and 
honesty.  END NOTE.) 
 
ACHIEVEMENTS OF FORMER INTERIOR MINISTER... 
 
¶11. (U) Former Minister of Interior Bauyrzhan Mukhamedzhanov was 
 
ASTANA 00000827  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
appointed to that position in October 2005.  He reformed the 
organizational structure of the MVD by eliminating units with 
overlapping responsibilities and increased the number of patrol 
officers throughout the country.  In June 2008, President Nazarbayev 
signed into law amendments introducing tougher punishments for 
drug-related crimes and clearly stipulating a division of 
responsibilities between the MVD and Ministry of Justice for 
correctional facilities.  The MVD Committee of Internal Troops is 
responsible for maintaining jails, where suspects are housed during 
investigations and during trial.  The Ministry of Justice is 
responsible for maintaining correctional colonies, where prisoners 
are able to work, and prisons.  In July 2008, amendments on road 
security were introduced that foresee a gradual strengthening of 
penalties for traffic violations.  The penalties for traffic 
violations now correspond to the danger the violations pose to the 
public.  Comparing the statistics with the first two months of 2008, 
the number of traffic accidents in the first two months of 2009 has 
decreased nearly 9%. 
 
... AND HIS FAILURES 
 
¶12. (SBU) One of the MVD's most controversial decisions was the 
introduction of a driver's record card in addition to the driver's 
license.  The card contains information about the driver, the 
vehicle, and previous infractions, and allowed drivers to easily pay 
penalties on the road.  Initially, the cards were offered to the 
public for a fee, but discussions in Parliament led to cards being 
offered free of charge, which upset those who had already paid.  The 
MVD also faced a scandal in its Counternarcotics Committee over the 
poor construction of internal narcotics checkpoints (reftel).  At a 
government meeting on March 31, Prime Minister Karim Masimov 
criticized the MVD's draft Program on Combating Drug Trafficking and 
Drug Addiction and requested the Ministry revise the plan within 30 
days. 
 
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION 
 
¶13. (U) In 2008, the MVD signed international counter-narcotics 
agreements with Egypt, Croatia, Slovakia, the Russian Federation, 
and the United States.  The MVD was responsible for the agreement on 
the establishment of the Central Asian Regional Information 
Coordination Center (CARICC), which entered into force on March 22, 
¶2009. Post provides technical assistance to the MVD on combating 
narco-trafficking and trafficking-in-persons.  Post's legal attache 
works with the MVD in investigations. 
 
¶14. (SBU) COMMENT:  Recent corruption and other criminal offenses 
committed by law enforcement officials in the midst of the financial 
crisis have had a serious negative effect on the already negative 
public image of law enforcement.  There are many possible reasons 
for the recent increase in the corruption-related arrests of 
government officials, including competition within the senior ranks 
and further struggles over the Aliyev case.  If corruption has 
increased, one cause may be corrupt officers with ties to senior 
officials acting with impunity while their protectors spend years in 
senior positions.  Though none of the reshuffled officials have 
themselves been accused of corruption, moving them around may in any 
event be a useful means to tackle the corruption beneath them.  INL 
Astana has worked with the Procurator General's Office in 
implementing the Crime Statistics Project; with the Ministry of 
Justice in implementing the Anti Trafficking-in-Persons (TIP) and 
Forensic projects; and with the Ministry of Interior in implementing 
Counter-narcotics and TIP projects.  Post has had successful 
cooperation with the former senior management of the law enforcement 
agencies and believes that cooperation will continue.  INL also 
hopes for fresh ideas from the newly-appointed officials.  END 
COMMENT. 
 
MILAS