Tag Archives: security

Kazakhstan funds fight against radical Islam

MAY 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Since the bombing of the Boston marathon in April, radical Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus has attracted increased scrutiny.

The two Tsarnaev brothers who allegedly planted the bombs were of Chechen ethnicity but part raised in Kyrgyzstan.

Central Asia has been combating extremists for years but the potential export of radicalism is relatively new.

One of the regions considered most vulnerable to radical Islamic ideas is western Kazakhstan which has a large population of poor and relatively disenfranchised young men.

The trial of six men accused of plotting to attack targets in Astana opened last week, and on May 21 the trial of another eight men accused of links with radical Islamic groups started in Atyrau on the Caspian Sea.

Now, media have reported that the Kazakh authorities have announced that another 200b tenge (roughly $13m) would be spent on combating the growth of Islamic extremism in the west of the country.

A lack of opportunities is just one of the issues driving young men in the west of Kazakhstan to extremists but Nurdaulet Suindikov, the government official who announced the funding increase, said security, rather than welfare and jobs, would be the focus of the extra spending.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)

UK pays military transit through Kazakhstan

MAY 20 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Britain will pay Kazakhstan between $300,000 and $400,000 a year to shift military equipment across its territory, media quoted Kazakh deputy foreign minister Aleksei Volkov as saying. NATO members have been agreeing deals with Central Asian states to help pull military equipment out of Afghanistan.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)

Kazakh presidents attends military parade

MAY 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Wearing camouflaged military uniform, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev took the salute at the largest parade by Kazakhstan’s military. Increasingly wealthy, Kazakhstan wants to show off its military might. Over 7,000 soldiers, 400 vehicles and 80 aircraft paraded in front of Mr Nazarbayev at a military base.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

US police arrest alleged Uzbek extremist

MAY 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in the US arrested an Uzbek man on suspicion of links to Islamic extremists, barely a month after two ethnic Chechen brothers, who were brought up in Kyrgyzstan, allegedly bombed the Boston marathon. The new arrest appears unrelated to the Boston bombs but will again draw Central Asia into the spotlight.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Georgian soldiers killed in Afghanistan

MAY 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Three Georgian soldiers died in Afghanistan when a suicide bomber attacked their base in Helmand province in the south of the country, media reported. Pro-West Georgia has been a stalwart supporter of NATO’s war in Afghanistan. Media reported that 22 Georgian soldiers have now died in Afghanistan.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Trial of Islamic terrorists begins in Kazakhstan

MAY 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The trial of six men accused of links to radical Islamic groups and of plotting to blow up landmarks and assassinate senior officials began in Astana. The trial is being held behind closed doors. Kazakhstan has been battling an increase in Islamist-linked bomb attacks since 2011.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 135, published on May 20 2013)

Boston bomber links become a problem for Kazakhstan

MAY 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The arrest of two Kazakh teenagers studying in the US with links to one of the alleged Boston bombers has triggered a major image problem for Kazakhstan.

Prosecutors in Boston charged Dias Kadyrbayev and Azamat Tazhayakov, both 19-years old, with obstructing the course of justice by trying to dispose of a rucksack and a laptop belonging to their friend, Dzhokhar Tsarnayev.

Three people died when Tsarnayev and his brother allegedly planted a series of bombs at the finishing line of the Boston marathon in April.

Now Kazakhstan has been dragged into the story.

But, while Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were university friends of Tsarnayev their backgrounds were very different. Tsarnayev, an ethnic Chechen, was an economic migrant who had settled in the US to build a better life.

Both Kadyrbayev and Tazhayakov were ethnic Kazakhs from relatively privileged backgrounds. Both were enjoying a relaxed period of study in Boston before heading home.

Regardless of the differences, Kazakhstan now has to deal with the image problem of Kazakhs caught up with bomb attacks in the US.

ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)

US plane crashes in Kyrgyzstan

MAY 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A US refuelling aircraft crashed in Kyrgyzstan, killing all three crew members. The aircraft had taken off from the US airbase outside Bishkek. Some media reports said the plane exploded in mid-air before crashing into the ground near the border with Kazakhstan in the north of the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)

Boston police arrests two Kazakh students

MAY 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Boston arrested two 19-year-old students from Kazakhstan and charged them with conspiring to obstruct justice by tampering with a computer and a backpack containing fireworks that had belonged to one of the alleged marathon bombers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)

Islamic radicalism from North Caucasus spreads in Central Asia

ALMATY/Kazakhstan, APRIL 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tsarnaev brothers, blamed for bombing the Boston marathon earlier this month, were ethnic Chechens, brought up in Kyrgyzstan who apparently learnt about radical Islam in Dagestan.

This link, between radical Islamic ideas in Russia’s North Caucasus and Central Asia, can’t be ignored. Domestic security in Central Asia and NATO’s main route for withdrawing its equipment from Afghanistan are potentially vulnerable.

But, although bomb attacks blamed on radical Islamists, increased in 2010 and 2011 in Kazakhstan, several Almaty-based analysts said the impact of radical Islamic ideology from the North Caucasus on Central Asia should not be overstated.

“Today there is no direct connection reported between the insurgency in North Caucasus and terrorist acts taking place in Kazakhstan,” Zhulduz Baizakov, a Kazakhstan-based analyst, said.

“The ideology, methods and purposes are different.”

Instead, analysts said that the radicalising influence from the Arabian peninsula and Afghanistan was more important than from the North Caucasus.

But the North Caucasus’ brand of radical Islam is accessible. It’s also worrying the Kazakh security forces. They are concerned with both the trickle of young Kazakh men fighting with rebels in Dagestan and the emergence of Islamic literature from the North Caucasus in Kazakhstan.

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)