US embassy cable - 05ALMATY4038

UNCLAS  ALMATY 004038 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
DEPT FOR NP/ECC PVANSON, ACHURCH, ACUMMINGS 
CBP/INA FOR PWARKER AND CDONOFRIO 
USDOE/NNSA FOR TPERRY 
DEPT FOR EUR/ACE 
EXPORT CONTROL AND RELATED BORDER SECURITY 
DOC FOR PETERSON-BEARD 
AMEMBASSY BERLIN FOR CUSTOMS ATTACHE 
AMEMBASSY TASHKENT, BISHKEK, BAKU, DUSHANBE FOR EXBS 
ADVISORS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ETTC, MNUC, PARM, PREL, KSTC, KNNP, KZ, EXBS 
SUBJECT:  EXBS: KAZAKHSTAN ADVISOR MONTHLY REPORTING CABLE 
(SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2005) 
 
I. BROAD ITEMS OF INTEREST TO ADVISORS AND AGENCY MANAGERS: 
 
     1. In September, a U.S. Department of Energy, National 
Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) team conducted 
talks with the Government of Kazakhstan on finalizing the 
language of the Second Line of Defense (SLD) program's 
Implementing Arrangement.  The most recent revision of the 
arrangement is currently being reviewed by Kazakhstani 
Customs.  Once the arrangement is signed, the SLD program 
will begin to install portal monitors at multiple locations 
throughout the country. 
 
     2. In October, Ambassador Ordway unveiled a notional 
schedule for Embassy Almaty's move to Astana.  The Export 
Control and Related Border Security Assistance (EXBS) 
office is expected to move in May/June 2006. 
 
     3. A list of EXBS office equipment has been sent by 
email to CBP and the International Security and 
Nonproliferation Bureau's Office for Export Control 
Cooperation (ISN/ECC) at State, as requested in paragraph 
11 of US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) cable 2381. 
 
II. COMPLETED ACTIONS FOR THE REPORTING PERIOD 
 
A. SITE ASSESSMENTS AND MEETINGS CONDUCTED 
 
     1. Anne Cummings, ISN/ECC Action Officer for EXBS 
Central Asia, spent several days with EXBS Almaty staff at 
the beginning of October on a program review and project 
development visit.  During her time in Almaty, Ms. Cummings 
attended the opening of the Strategic Tracker training 
program and met with SAO, DTRA and INL office 
representatives, as well as other embassy officials. 
 
On October 5, EXBS Kazakhstan staff and Ms. Cummings flew 
to the southern city of Shymkent where they were met by 
EXBS Uzbekistan Advisor Fetty.  The group then drove south 
to the border with Uzbekistan and was given tours of the Ak 
Zhol (Kazakhstan) and Gisht-Kuprik (Uzbekistan) ports of 
entry.  Mr. Brad Hanson, U.S. Embassy Uzbekistan's DCM, 
joined the group for the visits. 
 
     2. Commander Scott Donaldson of Central Command's 
Joint Interagency Coordination Group for Counternarcotics 
met with EXBS and other embassy offices on October 17 to 
discuss potential projects and border security efforts in 
the region. 
 
     3. EXBS Advisor Offenbacher met with U.S. Coast Guard, 
EXBS Baku and EUCOM/CENTCOM's Caspian Guard Initiative 
representatives on the sidelines of the Black Sea and 
Caspian Maritime Conference on Nonproliferation in Baku. 
 
B.  TRAINING DURING THE REPORTING PERIOD 
 
     1. September 9-15 - Batyr Hommadov, EXBS Ashgabat LES, 
visited Almaty to receive training in EXBS office 
procedures under the tutelage of EXBS Kazakhstan Program 
Manager Gulnara Abildaeva. 
 
     2. September 20-22 - Three Kazakhstani export control 
officials representing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the 
Customs Control Committee and the Border Service attended 
the Seventh Annual International Conference on Export 
Controls in Stockholm, Sweden. 
 
     3. September 26-29 - The National Nuclear Security 
Administration's International Nonproliferation and Export 
Control Program (NNSA/INECP) held its fifth Technical 
Experts Working Group in Almaty.  The regional event 
 
 
brought together nuclear technical experts working in the 
field of export control from a number of the Newly 
Independent States.  Kazakhstan was represented by two 
nuclear scientists from the Institute of Atomic Energy and 
two export control officials from the Kazakhstan Atomic 
Energy Committee. 
 
     4. September 26-28 - Commonwealth Trading Partners 
(CTP) conducted Integrity Awareness training for 25 
Kazakhstani Customs officials.  A number of attendees 
commented that they found the course very useful and all of 
the participants gave the course excellent marks on their 
evaluation forms.  The level of participation was high 
throughout the training and several individuals requested 
copies of the course materials to assist them develop their 
own anti-corruption training program. 
 
     5. September 29-30 - Gulnara Abildaeva accompanied two 
CTP representatives to Astana to participate in Industry 
Outreach Compliance meetings.  Dina Akpanbaeva, Head of the 
Export Control and Licensing Department at the Ministry of 
Industry and Trade, is preparing a letter in concert with 
the Kazakhstani agencies involved in export control 
industry outreach efforts to identify next steps. 
 
     6. October 3-7 - Three U.S. Border Patrol officers and 
a representative from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency 
(DTRA) conducted Strategic Enforcement Tracker training. 
Course participants included 25 Kazakhstani border guards, 
five instructors from the Border Control Management Faculty 
of the Almaty-based Military Institute and two observers 
from Tajikistan's Customs and State Border Protection 
Committee.  The activity was held at a border guard 
training center near the village of Karaoi some 30 
kilometers north of Almaty. 
 
The training was organized by EXBS Almaty and funded by 
DTRA.  Three days were devoted to practical exercises to 
teach techniques for patrolling the "green border" between 
ports of entry.  Instruction was also provided on the use 
of global positioning system (GPS) receivers.  Thirty-six 
GPS units were ceremoniously transferred to the Border 
Service of Kazakhstan upon conclusion of the training. 
 
The students were engaged throughout the training and 
showed a particular interest in working with the GPS 
receivers.  Many of the participants already had extensive 
tracking experience and therefore it may be advisable to 
place more of an emphasis on high-tech equipment training 
in future offerings. 
 
     7. October 11-13 - Three representatives of the 
Maritime Division of the Kazakhstani Border Service and 
EXBS Advisor Offenbacher attended the Black Sea and Caspian 
Maritime Conference on Nonproliferation in Baku, 
Azerbaijan.  The Kazakhstani delegates actively contributed 
to the discussions and commented at the end of the 
conference that they found their colleagues' presentations 
informative and useful. 
 
     8. October 27-28 - Gulnara Abildaeva attended an EXBS 
LES workshop in Cyprus. 
 
C. EQUIPMENT DELIVERED DURING THE REPORTING PERIOD 
 
     1. October 7 - Thirty-six GPS receivers (Garmin model 
76) were transferred to Kazakhstan.  Thirty-two of the 
units were given to the Border Service and 4 were provided 
to the Border Control Management Faculty of the Military 
Institute at the request of its director, Colonel Adilkhan 
Artykbayev.  All units were provided with spare batteries 
 
and Russian-language instruction manuals.  The GPS 
receivers were purchased by CBP with DTRA funds. 
 
     2. October 5 - A fiberscope repaired in the United 
States was returned to Kazakhstani Customs at the Zhibek 
Zholy port of entry on the border with Uzbekistan. 
 
     3. October 7 - One radiation pager was given to the 
Border Control Management Faculty of the Military Institute 
to be used as a classroom training tool for border guard 
cadets.  The pager is one of a large number originally 
provided to EXBS by DTRA in 2002. 
 
D. IMMINENT TRAINING OR EQUIPMENT STATUS UPDATE 
 
     1. The three SAFE boats procured by the U.S. Coast 
Guard for the Maritime Division of the Kazakhstani Border 
Service reportedly will soon receive export licenses from 
the State Department. Once the licenses are received the 
U.S. Coast Guard will work with a transportation company to 
load the boats onto a vessel bound for the Caspian.  The 
estimated delivery time for the 42-foot boats is 16 weeks. 
 
     2. November 1 - Two URAL 4320 high-clearance, six- 
wheel diesel trucks will be transferred to the Border 
Service of Kazakhstan.  The vehicles will be assigned to 
the "green border" in the area of the Kazakhstani- 
Turkmenistani frontier.  Funds for the purchase of the 
trucks were authorized in State 170780, which was received 
by EXBS Almaty in September 2005. 
 
     3. November 13-16 - The NNSA's Office of Global 
Security Engagement and Cooperation will sponsor the 
Central Asia Technical Workshop to Prevent the Trafficking 
of Nuclear and Radioactive Materials in Istanbul, Turkey. 
Alexandra Vozhakova, Chief of Radiological Research of the 
Central Customs Lab, and Tazhikhan Serikbai, Head of the 
Customs Control Committee's Contraband Department, will 
represent Kazakhstan at the event. 
 
     4. November 13-15 - NNSA/INECP will conduct a seminar 
in Shymkent on export controls and internal compliance for 
representatives from several South Kazakhstan Oblast 
uranium extraction facilities.  This will be the fourth 
such seminar since March 2004; previous seminars were held 
in Almaty, Ust-Kamenogorsk and Stepnogorsk. 
 
     5. November 14-17 - DTRA's International 
Counterproliferation Program (DTRA/ICP) will hold a 
Radiological Detection and Response course at the Institute 
of Nuclear Physics near Almaty. 
 
     6. November 14-16 - DTRA/ICP will conduct a "Terrorism 
and the Proliferation of WMD" course in Almaty. 
 
     7. January or February 2006 - A DOE team tentatively 
plans to travel to Kazakhstan to perform regularly 
scheduled maintenance on Kazakhstan's two x-ray vans.  The 
vans are located at the Kordai and Zhibek Zholy ports of 
entry.  The EXBS office would strongly prefer to have the 
team come to Kazakhstan sooner rather than later as it was 
recently brought to our attention that the x-ray van at the 
Ak Zhol port of entry is currently out of commission. 
 
E. SIGNIFICANT DEVELOPMENTS IN EXPORT CONTROLS, 
NONPROLIFERATION, OR RELATED BORDER SECURITY 
 
     None. 
 
F. CASPIAN SECURITY UPDATE 
 
     Please see section B, paragraph 7 and section D, 
paragraph 1 above. 
 
III. RED FLAG ISSUES. 
 
     None. 
 
The point of contact for this report is Andrew S. 
Offenbacher, EXBS Advisor, OffenbacherAS@state.gov, tel: 
+7(3272)50-4945, cell: +7(333)225-1156. 
 
ORDWAY 
 
 
NNNN