In this issue:
Kazakhstan Security Agency Busts International Drug Ring, Expert Says Problem Needs to Be Tackled at Source
Government Discusses Introduction of Professional Army
Parliamentary Conferees Reach Consensus on Media Bill
Kazakhstan Values Women in All Fields as Nation Marks International Women’s Day
Say it in Kazakh:
Spring --- Koktem [Kawk-TEM]
Summer ---Zhas
Autumn --- Kuz
Winter --- Kys [Kyhs]
Kazakhstan Security Agency Busts International Drug Ring,
Expert Says Problem Needs to Be Tackled at Source
Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee (NSC) has over the past several months smashed a major international drug ring specializing in shipping heroin from Afghanistan to Europe and beyond. The operation, code-named Naiza, or Spear, ended February 14 with the arrest of 14 ring members including the ringleader, and the seizure of 200 kilograms (440 pounds) of heroin in the southern city of Shymkent.
NSC officials, announcing their success on March 11, said the operation had started in August 2003 and involved the close cooperation of the Russian security agency FSB. The operation included earlier arrests of ring members and seizure of 106 kilos of heroin near Yekaterinburg in Russia. A string of arrests led to the final smashing of the ring in mid-February.
Officials would not disclose the identity of the ringleader, only saying he is a citizen of Kazakhstan and a former boxing champion of one of the Soviet republics.
Experts say drug trafficking is a major and growing problem in Central Asia, caused mostly by the continuing instability in Afghanistan and a lack of economic development there.
Dr. Maulen Ashimbayev, director of Kazakhstan’s Institute of Strategic Studies said: “With the overthrow of the Taliban regime, the problem of narcotics in Afghanistan was not solved. The flow of drugs at first dropped, but then grew and outgrew the previous level. UN experts believe that in 2002 the acreage seeded with opium poppy in Afghanistan amounted to 74,000 hectares, which is 10 times more than in 2001. Last year, a record amount of raw opium was produced there, more than 4,500 tons. Most of the 10,000 tons of opium produced during the previous 3-4 years, minus the amount shipped to the markets, was not discovered and seized as part of the international anti-terrorist operation.”
Ashimbayev noted, “The Government of President Karzai is concerned that the fight against the opium plantations will lead to serious social tensions which in turn could hamper the government’s influence. For the majority of Afghanistan’s population, this business is the main source of income.”
In a January 1 Op-Ed in The Washington Times, Ashimbayev stressed: “The problem of Afghanistan is one for the long haul. We all need to get ready for a long-term commitment to rebuilding Afghanistan.”
Government Discusses Introduction of Professional Army
Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov said ongoing military reform and the gradual substitution of the draft with a professional army should have a clear goal of high professionalism, compactness and constant combat readiness.
Speaking at a Government meeting in Astana on March 11, the Prime Minister said: “Military service of the future should no longer resemble the simple military draft, but it must be prestigious, honorable and attractive, including being highly paid.” Only then, he said, can military reform bring real results.
Commenting on the proposed concept of a professional army, PM Akhmetov said that by April 2004 the Defense Ministry’s Chiefs of Staff will not only have to come up with a theoretical calculation of the concept, but must also exhibit a clear economical foundation for each proposed reforms.
At the meeting, Defense Minister Army Gen. Mukhtar Altynbayev said currently 38.5 percent of all enlisted personnel and NCOs in the armed services are professionals doing voluntary service. By the end of 2004, this is expected to 65 percent and by the end of 2005 the military should be 85 percent volunteer.
Parliamentary Conferees Reach Consensus on Media Bill
Senator Nurlygaim Zholdasbaeva announced in Astana on March 11 that the conference commission of both houses of Parliament has reached consensus on contentious articles in the proposed bill regulating the activities of the news media.
The Senator said there were 8 points of disagreement. She noted the commission “had separated the foundations for suspending a media outlet and shutting it down, and had drastically narrowed the list of causes that can lead to the closing of an outlet.”
Senator Zholdasbaeva continued: “The activity of a news media outlet can be stopped on the basis of reasons provided for by Article 20 of our Constitution.”
Article 20, in part, says: “Propaganda of or agitation for the forcible change of the constitutional system, violation of the integrity of the Republic, undermining of state security, and advocating war, social, racial, national, religious, class and clannish superiority as well as the cult of cruelty and violence shall not be allowed.”
According to Khabar news agency, Information Minister Sauytbek Abdrakhamnov said the final draft approved by the commission had taken into account all proposals of the Congress of Journalists of Kazakhstan earlier this year.
The bill is now subject to further review by both houses of Parliament.
Kazakhstan Values Women in All Fields as Nation Marks International Women’s Day
Kazakhstan marked the International Women’s Day on March 8, as women become increasingly prominent in many non-traditional spheres.
The news media in Kazakhstan marked the day by writing profiles of many women in jobs traditionally held by men, such as police commissioner, coal miner, self-made business executive and government minister.
Aitkul Samakova, Minister of Environment Protection and Chair of the National Commission on Family and Women, was among those profiled in Kazakhstanskaya Pravda daily newspaper. The same publication also profiled Dr. Zhanylzhan Dzhunusova Ph.D., a professor and a head of department of foreign policy and diplomacy at the Diplomatic Academy in Astana.
Kazakhstan, with a Muslim majority of more than 60 percent, considers the nation’s women a highly valuable resource. Celebrations marking International Women’s Day point the way to the future of women in Kazakhstan.
Things to Watch:
- Parliament considers new election bill on March 15.
- The career of Almas Kishkenbayev, a Kazakh teenager who won Superstar.kz, Kazakhstan’s equivalent of the popular American Idol TV show, on February 29.
____________________________________________________________
News Bulletin of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the USA and Canada
(Compiled from own sources and agency reports)
Contact person: Roman Vassilenko
1401 16th Street NW, Washington DC 20036
Tel.: (202) 232- 5488 ext. 104, Fax: (202) 232- 5845
